Burning The Midnight Oil
by Ni'Rala vas Qwib Qwib
Summary: One small case of good intentions can bring forth spectacular change, or unmitigated disaster. Or both, in their case. But if things don't all come crashing down, the night might just belong to them. FutaroXNino. Next Update: Thursday, August 13th.
1. Nino's Retreat

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1**

**Nino's Retreat**

_**~Nino~**_

The chore list has become her sworn nemesis.

Sweep the floors, separate and take out the trash, scrub the bathroom. Wash and hang the day's laundry (for five), prepare dinner (for five) and do the dishes (again, for five). But these things never changed, in fact this list was the very same she kept in their old high-rise. But something had corrupted her partner in order, turning it rotten like citrus abandoned in the bushes. And those bushes were this damn apartment!

A place this tiny should be easy to maintain, correct? Less space meant less mess, that's what Futaro would say. And wouldn't he be right?

WRONG!

The carpets actively clung to dust like a bald man clutching his wig in the wind! The wooden floors were pockmarked with permanent stains that matched her polka-dot dress! And the porcelain, oh, don't get her started on the porcelain. She'd finally relented and accepted that bleach would never make those old bowls shine. Her white flag was the air freshening unit over the toilet to battle the dug-in scent of a roadside restroom that greeted the sisters every time they sought relief.

And all of that, _all_ of that would have been manageable if the appliances were half-decent. But no! These things had to be older than she was! The washer gave this eerie creen like it was trying to curse her and her unborn children every time she presented it with work, and the dryer took so long that mildew settled into their clothes. She'd given up on the thing and purchased a drying rack. She felt like an old maid every time she hung their damp uniforms.

Oh, and the dishwasher was flat-out broken. So that was nice.

If only they'd had more time finding a place! But no, they were in a rush, and Ichika had a friend who _assured _her this place was perfect for the five of them! Plenty of space, they said. Great condition, they said. Beautiful sunrise on the river, they said! Okay, that last part was true, but two out of three was still...she didn't want to call that a failure, or her academic future was more precarious than she'd thought.

Ichika, by the way, was totally fine with the place. No surprise there, she'd be comfortable in a blanket of leaves on the forest floor after a monsoon. The others had been a surprise. Was she the only one who found these conditions unacceptable?

One day, she thought, she'd ready for war with the landlord. She'd come armed to the teeth! Pictures, her sword; building codes, her shield; mold samples, her bow and arrow; and determination, her mighty steed!

But not today. First she had to pass this test. They all did. Futaro too, at a level she couldn't even imagine or risk fear of heights. She didn't want to imagine what could happen if any of them failed. She could stick this out a bit longer.

She relented and set the toilet brush back in its holster, the grime of the toilet that still felt like it belonged to a stranger remained undefeated. But it was late, nearly eleven. Her sisters must be asleep by now.

She drew herself a bath and settled in, letting the warm water soothe the aches of the day away, like ice melting in an oven. Maybe it was selfish to ready the tub all for herself, but she earned it, dammit. She found a job like the others, kept up her studies with the others, and on top of that she kept this place...well, as close to pristine as physically possible. That was a responsibility she refused to share. This was how it'd been for years, ever since mom left them behind. This was how she cared for her family. Things may be changing, but no matter what, she would take care of her family by giving them a clean space to rest their heads and warm food to fill their bellies.

She toweled off and dressed in an evening gown. She stepped into their kitchen and began lining up ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast. Pancakes with berries and grapefruit would be nice, she mused.

She flinched at the sound of shuffling papers and turned. There, right at the kotatsu, was Futaro vigorously conquering equations like a glutton at a buffet. Amazing! His pencil was blurring from how fast it was movi-wait, no, that was something in her eye. She blinked and focused. Futaro was in their house. Late at night. Alone.

She grinned like a leopard about to pounce on its meal. She'd leave an offering on Sunday for whatever God granted her this golden chance!

She silently waltzed over to her studious crush and leaned over, his ear further than she'd like, but hey, she had to show some restraint. She greeted cheerily, "Hey, you."

He gasped and spun, his hair shifting cutely like it struggled to keep up. He said, "Nino? What're you doing up?"

She shrugged and sat next to him. He shifted uncomfortably, probably wondering why she sat here when there was so much space in the other corner. It was all part of her plan, slowly pushing at their distance until she mashed it into nonexistence. She'd wear him down eventually, she was up for the long game. "Oh, the usual, trying to keep this place as tidy as the laws of physics permit."

"How would you know? You got thirty-three points on your last practice test."

"And what are you doing here, mister tutor? Shouldn't you be home by now?"

He pointed to the spare futon next to them, "Your sisters let me stay the night because of the rain."

It's raining? Well that was one thing in this place's favor, at least it didn't leak. She checked the window and confirmed the droplets shimmering in the moonlight. Thank you God of Evening Showers!

She reached over and grabbed his papers. She said, "So what's got you up so late?"

He sighed, "Nino, please give those back."

"Ugh, whoever put letters in math needs to be tried for crimes against humanity."

"Nino, I'm not kidding."

She followed the math and said, "Well, beats me, I can't understand a thing."

"It's advanced calculus, you don't need to worry about it."

"Oh? Is this for the mock exam?"

"What else?" he breathed tiredly as he resumed tackling the problems.

Nino smiled, "Well it's after hours and you're officially off tutor duty, so you're our guest. Allow me to bring you some refreshments."

Futaro closed his eyes and rubbed his temple, "No, it's fine. I'm good."

"I insist! It's no trouble at all, Fuu."

Futaro buried his head in his hand and said weakly, "Okay, fine. Whatever." Nino got up and beelined for the kitchen, completely missing him take in a long breath, then let it out like steam from a kettle. He dropped his pencil and covered his face, breathing deeply again.

Refreshments, what a wonderfully versatile term. It was really dealer's choice. It could be as simple as a glass of water, or as complex as meringue tart, which, as it happens, is exactly what she planned on making. One of her girlfriends mentioned that the highway to a man's heart was through his stomach. And hadn't he said that his number two trait in a woman was great cooking?

Why could she remember that, but not the capital city of the Edo period? Life's great mysteries.

She slid the tart into the oven, then whipped the meringue so vigorously she might need another bath. The beater scraped against the bowl like she was working in a steel mill for minutes. She wondered if he was watching her, but she couldn't risk turning to check. She wanted him to see her engrossed in her work, into making this artful treat all for him. She'd make him fall for her one perfectly flavored bite at a time.

Okay, maybe she went a little overboard with the trimmings. This wasn't a painting after all, it all comes apart at the touch of a fork. But she wanted the image of this to burn into his memory for all time, preferably with her presenting it to him! She wished she had a silver platter to serve this on. Should've brought it from the old apartment.

She wondered what his face would be like. Would he light up like a firework at a festival? Or would it be a more gradual joy, like the rising sun in spring? She couldn't wait to find out! She turned and-

He was asleep.

She blinked several times as if her vision was the problem, and not the fact that the man she went through so much trouble for was slouched over the table like a deboned fish. That had to be it, right? The God of Evening Showers wouldn't abandon her already, right?

She gripped the plate so hard it shook. Of all the luck! She groaned and set the plate on the table before dropping beside it. She eyed Futaro like he might pop up at any instant to surprise her. She'd say something snide about his ungratefulness and then demand he eat, and that he'd better enjoy the fruits of her labor. But nothing. He was out like the dead. All that work, out the window.

"Geez, you couldn't stay up a bit longer?" She scolded like he could hear her. Her eyes followed his hand draped over his pencil. So he'd fallen asleep in the middle of his studies. He must be dreaming in equations, the nerd. Wait, what's that?

She carefully slid the paper he'd been working on from beneath his hand. She carefully followed the problems, still nonsensical, but this time she caught something familiar. Numbers scribbled out, scratched and erased in frustration. Mistakes. Loads of them, done over and over again until finally some pathetic sum was left. Some even carried frustrated question marks as their tails.

Looks like even geniuses need to learn new tricks, she thought. She took the futon and shifted it behind Futaro, then gently lowered his body on the mat. This guy was a heavy sleeper. He could sleep through an earthquake, or an eruption. She noticed faded crests under his eyes like bad mascara. How long had he been-

And then something happened. The Nakanos might be book-dumb on a scale that shamed their parents' genetic gifts, but they weren't thick. And as the pieces were so blatantly laid out before her, Nino Nakano realized one truth.

Futaro was exhausted.

Only this wasn't the exhaustion of a long day's work in the fields. There were no obvious signs of physical stain and debility. This was more subtle, almost unseen. But the signs were there, signs of a mind pushed to its very limit until overheating. Why hadn't she noticed them? And now that she could, she felt the rush of guilt as she understood why.

How else could it have ended? One very bright boy given the task of teaching five dim-witted sisters for hours a day was trouble enough. But now this challenge threatening their delicate status quo demanded he score in the top ten in the country. And all this, all of it, was to keep a tutoring position he wasn't even being paid for, all while working another job to help manage his family's debts, on top of acting as the unwilling class rep to an uninterested student body.

He could have walked away, refusing wouldn't have meant anything had to really change. So they get a new tutor, that doesn't mean they have to stop being friends. But he persisted, either because he was stupider than she thought, or he, like them, didn't want to lose this strange, tiring dynamic they'd stumbled into. Because he found something special inside it. And Futaro was past proving he wasn't stupid. Thicker than concrete, maybe, but never stupid, not like them.

"Futaro, you idiot." She said quietly. She took the comforter and draped it over him. Then she knelt and watched the blanket softly rise and fall with each silent breath. This must be his only relief from it all, his only way to escape before hopping back on the hamster wheel the moment he opened his eyes.

And what had she done in all this? She pushed and prodded, demanding he give her his focus, until he noticed the depth of her affection for him. Then again, this wasn't any different from before, was it? Hadn't Futaro always paddled through her river of wants to get results? The only thing that changed was the direction of the flow, bringing him closer instead of pushing him away, but he still had to keep swimming through her currents. Because she wanted him to see her. She wanted. But Futaro just needed to rest. He looked like his mind was scrambled like an egg. How much of that was on her?

She pulled back. This wasn't right, why was she blaming herself? What about Ichika, or Miku? And even then it was really their papa who's to blame. He was the one trying to shove a wall between them, if he just minded his own business everything would be fine! Whatever pressure her affections gave him was nothing in comparison to him! Why should she be the one feeling guilty? This wasn't her fault!

She looked again. Those lines were deep. His face looked hollow.

She sighed. Well, every little bit helped, didn't it?

He didn't need this now. No, he couldn't take it. If she kept prodding now, he might never forgive her for it. And maybe she wouldn't, either.

Not like this, she decided. She wouldn't take part in tearing him down.

"I...I have something to say to you. But it'd be better to say it now, when you're asleep." She began, kneeling beside him and staring at his tired face.

"You're stronger than you look, Fuu. We really gave you a hard time, but you kept with us all the way. I think that's quite an accomplish. If Takeda ever took over, we'd have his resignation letter within a week." She paused, "But you're not that strong, are you?"

She reached out to brush the hair out of his closed eyes. But just before her fingers touched his black strands, she paused, frowned, and pulled away.

"Let's make a deal, just between you and me. I, well, you won't have to worry about me until the test. Just forget everything I've said up to now and focus on making the top ten, okay? I really won't forgive you if we all pass and you're the only one who doesn't hold up their end.

"But don't think I'm done! I haven't given you up. I'm still going to show you how much I love you, Futaro. Just...it can wait until after the exam, right? So don't go falling for anyone else before I get my chance."

She stood, frowning at nothing, and said, "So let's give it our all tomorrow, okay? I'll be counting on you. Goodnight."

She left him there and entered the room the five of them shared. It was small, with barely enough room to fit their five futons. Just like their childhood, all of them bundled together in one blanket. Back to the nest where they all began.

She began to congratulate herself on her sacrifice in love, and if she continued she would marvel that someday, he'd notice her effort as the surest sign of affection, and being so deeply touched he'd take her in his arms and express his returned interest like the knight of her dreams!

But no. Full stop. It was meaningless if that's why she was doing this. She settled into bed and pulled up the covers. Starting tomorrow, she wasn't going to give Futaro any reason to worry for her. She'd return to those stupid textbooks and practice problems with as much vigor as she could muster and leave no doubt that she'd pass her exams.

It'd all be worth it if it meant less stress for Futaro.

_**~Futaro~**_

What. Just. Happened.

This was a question. A question can be seen as a problem. Problems were his specialty because you could always reach an answer. There wasn't any equation, any formula, any piece of trivia he couldn't answer given a study guide and an hour to master it.

He wondered where he could get a study guide that covered what. Just. Happened.

He gripped these sheets. Curse the high thread count, so much smoother than the bargain bin comforter at home, and curse his sensitive skin firing his nerve endings like alarm bells ringing danger! Outside of home territory! All status on alert! Of course his mind, overheated it may be, was still a multi-piston masterpiece compared to this bag of meat it occupied against its will. And with his mind fully alert and his body struggling to catch up, he heard everything. And then he was too stunned to move.

So what just happened? The hell if he knew.

He sat up long after Nino closed the door. His eyes drifted to his scattered papers and he remembered the mock exam, the way a convict on death row remembers his execution date. He sighed, he was awake now, no point trying to sleep anytime soon. He turned on the lamp, grabbed his pencil and positioned it at the end of an equation involving seventeen characters.

He tapped his pencil once, twice, then settled into a steady rhythm. One minute flowed into the next, and still he tapped, until the spot looked like a house after a very thorough drive-by.

He set his pencil down and sighed. What happened to his laser focus, how could it fail him now? Dammit, Nino. What the hell are you playing at? And why can't he figure it out? The woman was a bee, every time he had her flight pattern locked and was ready to swat, she jeered away and stung him in the face!

He slumped on the kotatsu and resigned himself to many wasted hours. How many more would he need to reach the top ten? One-point-three million eligible test-takers across the country. He only had to beat all of them except nine. How hard could that be? Right?

Right?

Stop. Your pulse is racing. Stress is just a bodily response. It's all chemicals rushing through your brain. You can control it, just like all those other primitive urges. You're better than this.

He sighed, looking up. He noticed the tart sitting all by itself. He wondered who made it, then chastised his brain for hiccuping. Of course it was Nino. Nevermind her being the only other one up, who else made dessert so frivolously pretty?

It looked good, and she made it for you, he thought.

But no, he needed to try studying again. You'll keep thinking about this if you eat her food.

It looks lonely, his belly wined.

He glared at the dessert and cursed it for being so tempting. He made a pros and cons list in his head.

Pros: it looks delicious, no, it is delicious, Nino's a good cook, and she made this for you to eat, so no trouble.

Cons...

Cons…

He decided he didn't care and picked up the fork.

**A/N**

Allow me to set the record straight: this is no longer a harem, it's a romance. What harem elements that existed up to chapter 73 of the manga will remain, but I intend to write an actual romance between two people. I do not intend to overly fluff it, in fact I intend to deal with the troubles a romance such as this can create.

On another note, I came up with this idea after I discovered the manga and read it. The manga had been published up to chapter 73 at that point. As such, the story told here will diverge from whatever the original author has and shall publish past that point, and I will choose to ignore elements that do not fit in with what I plan to write.

I've enjoyed writing adventures and dark stories, and now I want to add a proper romance between two people and the people in their lives to that list. I hope you enjoy it as well. Please review with any comments, criticisms, praise and concerns.

Story covert artwork by the original author, coloring by Nerona.


	2. Pump The Brakes

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 2**

**Pump The Brakes**

_**~Futaro~**_

"WAKE UP UESUGI!"

Danger! Danger! All senses on full alert! Coal to the fires, boys, we're under attack! Dive! Dive! Di-oh it's Yotsuba.

"That's better! You looked like Saigo Takanari after the gatling guns in the Setsuna Rebellion!"

"That was...mostly wrong."

"Yes! Progress!"

"Why're you wearing a tracksuit?"

"Morning run time! Gotta get the blood flowing to do some learning."

The bathroom door snapped open like a treasure crate and Ichika walked out wearing a towel. Just a towel. "Yotsuba, the tub's all yours."

"Waaah! Ichika, Uesugi's awake. Quick, before he notices!"

"Oh, he's awake?"

"Too late," Futaro glanced away. "I'm surprised you didn't hear us."

"Yeah, Ichika," came the voice that made his blood reverse flow in retreat, "I'm sure it's just an accident."

Ichika laughed nervously, "Er, of course, what else? How about I go change? Yotsuba, it's your turn."

"Just a minute," She turned to Futaro, "Hey, Nino's preparing breakfast. Want to have a bite before you leave, since you're already up?"

"It's because of you that I'm awake."

"Think about it, I'll see you when I get out." She skipped to the bathroom, paused, and turned, "And Uesugi...no peeking."

"Ever hear of locks?"

"It happens a lot around you."

Nino jerked, "What?"

"Don't even start!" Futaro shouted.

Yotsuba shut the door and the lock clicked. Futaro stretched and leaned against the kotatsu. The sound of a spoon clacking against a plastic bowl filled the room as the only other occupant continued her mixing. She wore her purple tracksuit with the jacket wrapped over her hips, her undershirt damp from rain or sweat.

Futaro waited for her to turn around. Of course she'd make the first move, he thought, unless it dealt with studies she seized the initiative like it owed her money.

Minutes passed. She wasn't looking. Had she grown eyes in the back of her-stupid idea. So that was it? She just changed their entire dynamic in an instant, as if it was as simple as changing your outfit? It was too easy, he didn't buy it for a second.

He stood, "Hey, I think I'll head home, I'm late enough as it is."

Nino continued stirring and said, "You sure? There's plenty to spare."

"Yeah, Raiha will be making something by now anyways."

"Alright, get home safe."

That's it? Too suspicious.

"Bring the dishes before you go."

Ah, that's right. The dish settled on the table was crowned with crumbs and cream, all the remnants of Nino's delicacy. Ah, their manager would loved to have seen it. Maybe he should have saved a sliver. Wait, he'd considered it last night, right after his first bite. For some reason it hadn't seemed like a good idea at the time. He couldn't remember why.

He picked it up and placed it in the sink. "Do you have a-"

"I'll take care of it with the rest."

Was she trying to speed this up? Fine, whatever. He could live with that. "I'll be off then. Thanks for having me." He put on his shoes and reached for the door. Only he remembered, she did go through the effort to prepare the tart for him. It'd be rude to leave without saying something. He turned, "Hey, Nino."

She looked up at him like a poker player hiding her bluff, "What?"

He gave her a thumbs up, "It was delicious. Thanks."

"I'm glad," she said as she deftly grabbed her bowl and turned away, pouring the first pancake into the skillet. She escaped!

Futaro scowled and swiftly entered the chill of early spring morning. The bitterness nipped at his cheeks on the long walk home, but inside he felt warm like the flames of Prometheus descending from Olympus.

Nino! Nino, always Nino! He wanted to grab a dictionary and replace the definition of frustration with Nino! Why couldn't she be a normal person and settle on what kind of relationship she wanted instead of bouncing all across the emotional spectrum? No, bouncing wasn't the right word. She bought a one-way plane ticket from bitter loathing to utter infatuation in the time it took to blink! And last night she booked an overnight train straight to absolute ambivalence!

Why couldn't she choose an emotional state and stick with it? At least then he could adapt. Hatred? Fine! He'd bring a carrot and stick to make her study until her eyes were white as a flag of surrender. Perfect neutral? Also fine! He'd convince her sisters to drag her to graduation. As for 'love', he admitted that was a challenge. He'd have to play it carefully until she came to her senses and hastily killed off her silly infatuation.

But all three? That was a game of Russian roulette. He wasn't ready to die yet.

"I'm home," he grumbled and stepped through the door.

"Brother, you're home!" Raiha threw herself into a hug. Futaro blinked and remembered to return it. She smelled of conditioner and cooking oil.

"Hey sis, morning. What's that I smell?"

"Brunch!"

"Oh? What'd you make today?"

"I made something new: curry-ritto!"

"Ah, fusion food. Such a masterful chef."

He took off his shoes and sat at the table. His father greeted him, "Hey there Futaro! You're just in time to eat. How was your time at the Nakano's?"

There was a pause.

"Daddy, did it get colder all of a sudden?"

"Can't be, I paid the electric bill this month."

Futaro said, "I only studied a fraction that I would have here or at the library. So much wasted opportunity."

His father gleaned, "Oh? Were the girls distracting?"

"I'm going to stop you there. If they're not studying, they're causing trouble. I'd much rather have come straight home than try to accomplish anything with those five."

His father frowned, looking concerned, "Futaro, you are the only teenage boy in the country who can be surrounded by five beautiful young ladies and hate it."

Futaro scoffed and said to Raiha, "Dad's going off again, sis."

"No, he's right. You're weird."

"Et tu, Raiha?"

"What's that mean?"

Their father slammed his hand on the table, "As your father I can only be concerned that my only son has never felt the flame of romantic desire! Or perhaps..." he paused, then looked steadily at Futaro, "Or perhaps you have, just not for women…my son, is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Oh no. We're not going there."

"I want you to know that no matter what secrets you hide, I am still your father and you will always be my son."

"Raiha, this is getting serious. Why don't you wait in the bathroom."

"Raiha stays. There are no secrets among family."

"Yeah! No secrets!"

"So I'm supposed to share my secret now? Is that it?"

"Yes, my boy, and know that I will love you no matter what you choose to love!"

"Dad, I'm not gay."

"What?"

"I said I'm not gay."

"Who said anything about being gay?"

"Huh? But you were implying..."

"I meant books, Futaro. You're a complete bibliophile."

"Oh I get it. That doesn't mean what you think it means, dad."

Raiha said, "Why not? It goes with zoophilia, necrophilia, pedophilia-"

Futaro gasped, "Raiha, how do you know such things?"

"How do you?" She shot back.

"I...read about them in a medical book."

Father shouted, "See? It's always back to books!"

"Okay, wait. Bibliophilia is not like the other philias. It means I like books, not _really _like books."

Father huffed, "Scientists need to make such important terms clear, and easy to understand."

"Can we get back to how Raiha knows these things?"

Raiha changed the subject, "Brother, he's got a point. I've seen those girls with their hands all over you and you hated it. Aren't guys supposed to like that kind of thing?"

Where was she getting these ideas? "I'm not like most guys."

Raiha asked, "How? What's your philia?"

"Women! Happy? My brain is wired to like women! Can we drop it now?"

Father said, "We'll have to take your word, since I've never seen you express interest to anything that isn't printed."

"Because there's nothing to express. I understand now what people see in love, but I still have no interest in finding it, it's a distraction and a waste of time. Yes, my brain likes girls. I could appreciate a beautiful woman as easily as the next guy, but that desire is primitive and I've worked to overcome it, because knowing those weaknesses and ignoring them is power. It's all distractions leftover from our time in the wilds. But now we can pursue the higher pleasures, and I can only practice them if I ignore unproductive lesser urges."

Father frowned, "And what about us? Are you telling me you don't love sweet Raiha and your dear old dad?"

Raiha whined, "Yeah, brother, don't you love us?"

"Family is the exception. You are the one thing I hold closely. Everything else is unnecessary."

Father nodded and rested his head in his hand, "Maybe so, Futaro, but most of the folks who wrote those heavy books you love, they didn't ignore those primitive urges. Many embraced them, and it made them who they were."

"That's why I'll be better, I'll give myself wholly to academics and sharpen my mind to a razor's edge of intellect."

"My boy, still so naive." He smiled when he saw how it pissed Futaro off, "You still have a lot to learn."

Futaro didn't listen. He hated when his father waxed childishly, like he was the narrator of a children's story. Only he wasn't a child anymore and was past believing silly things.

"Thank you for the meal!" Father and Raiha said in unison. Futaro look up, somehow these two had found moments to clean their plates while talking. He grabbed his own curry-ritto and took a bite.

Ah, it's gone cold.

_**~Futaro~**_

Weekend study session round two!

He arrived at the Nakano apartment armed as a man ready for war. Texts, citations, worksheets galore! He'd drag these girls to academic success if it killed him, which, given past experience, it just might!

"It's unlocked, come in," someone said when he knocked. He gripped his backpack and stepped into the apartment like a gladiator into the roaring arena. Only instead of armored Goliaths and roaring lions, there were five girls chatting at the kotatsu. They'd appear tame if he didn't know better, and he knew much, much better. He recognized the menace hidden in those eyes.

Itsuki looked flustered, "Ah, you're already here! Just a minute, I almost finished the last of my homework." She sounded worried. Did she think he was going to scold her again? It was only Saturday afternoon, he couldn't expect miracles.

Miku went to the kitchen and brought a plate to the table. "I made an early dinner, I thought you'd be hungry."

He sat down, "Yakisoba, huh? Thanks Miku." She took a seat and watched his plate. He asked the others, "Isn't anyone else going to eat?"

Ichika said, too quickly, "Oh no, we had a huge lunch! We're fine!"

Itsuki patted her stomach mournfully, "Yeah, all good…"

Miku said, "It wasn't that much."

The sound of pencil marking paper caught his ear. He noticed Nino plucking down numbers on one of the extra geometry worksheets he'd left yesterday. His eyes followed the trail of numbers like a pilgrim on the holy road to Jerusalem. The pencil stopped and Nino looked up, "What are you looking at?"

He pointed, "Check this one and tell me where you went wrong."

She did, and said, "I don't see any mistakes."

"What's the Pythagorean theorem?"

"It's a plus b equals c."

"Wrong, a _squared _plus b _squared _equals c _squared_."

She checked her work again, then vigorously eradicated her error with her blunted eraser.

Yotsuba chimed, "Squared? That means putting it in a box, right?" Futaro's death glare barely dampened her spirits, "Hey hey, settle down. Kidding...but can you go over that again please?"

Futaro sighed, "I guess we're starting with math today."

From math came science and reviewing the periodic tale, where he reminded Ichika that moles were a unit of measurement as well as the English term for the mammal. From there they arrived at Japanese, where Futaro had prepared a lesson tying in with English vocabulary, and finally ending with a brief recap of the Meiji period. And then he dropped the bombs.

"A pop quiz!?" Itsuki screamed.

"Futaro, you're too cruel," Miku said.

Futaro grinned, "Settle down, if you paid attention this past week you should have no trouble."

Yotsuba looked ready to cry, "Uesugi, you traitor! I trusted you!"

Nino glared daggers at him for an instant, then shook it off and took the quiz. "Let's get this over with." The rest looked to Nino, then resigned themselves to their torment. The quintuplets were predictable, topple one and the rest will fall like dominoes in a row.

He accepted the quizzes one by one, the paper heavy as bowling balls in their hands as they handed them over. He piled them up and broke out his trusty red pen, the second one he'd ever owned after the first gave the last of its lifeblood for their holy crusade of knowledge. Who actually used up a red pen? Whoever taught these five, that's who.

Ichika looked at the clock and said, "It's already half past nine. Why don't we call it a night?"

Futaro's hand deftly arced his pen in grim check marks and circles, mercilessly tearing apart their progress like a beach bully knocking down childrens' sand castles. He didn't care if they saw him as overly strict. He was, but he wasn't cruel. He would illuminate every alley of ignorance and drag them through it to make them grow.

He paused, that analogy went somewhere awful.

He said, "I'll leave these here, review them in the morning and prepare for a make-up test on Monday."

Itsuki moaned, "There goes our Sunday."

"It's going to be the exact same test. I'm giving you the answers."

Ichika smiled, "You still believe in us. How generous of you." She stood, "We'll just be getting ready for bed. Feel free to make yourself at home."

"Bring me your textbooks before you leave."

"Which ones?"

"All of them."

Most men would be aware of the rotating beautiful women bathing in their general vicinity. Futaro knew only his work. He recalled what his dad said earlier and scoffed, what exactly was he supposed to be missing? The door was closed so there was nothing to see, all that changed was the occasional splash of water and a scent of flowery shampoo. He supposed the male mind could take these small stimuli and craft them into something more substantial. The mind is such a powerful, wonderful tool, and he refused to squander it on something so frivolous.

He finished marking the tests. They made his pride bleed, they somehow managed to score worse than last week. But he had a plan! He took out his reference sheet and wrote in a page number next to each wrong answer. He didn't give them the answer, that would be too easy for them. They needed to be engaged. Next he gathered their textbooks and began the laborious process of leafing through each one, using his reference sheet as a guide, and marking each page with the answers with a thin sticky note. The tiny yellow notes looked like fields of wheat when he closed each book.

He was halfway through Yotsuba's history book when Miku plopped down next to him. He turned, "Miku? Something wrong?"

Her blank eyes were like black holes dragging him in, "Futaro, there's something I need to say."

"What is it, Miku?"

"I..." she glanced away, then back to him, "I don't want to be hopeless. I don't want to stay the same. So, please don't give up on us."

"Would I still be here if I could? We're not stopping unless you say so."

Miku nodded, "Thank you." She paused and struggled to bring her words, "Are you going to be much longer? You can stay here again if you can't make it home."

"I won't be much longer. Are you going to bed?" She nodded, and he continued, "Get some rest then. Mind if I see myself out?"

She shifted, "I can stay here until you're done. If you want company."

"It'd be better if you got an early start tomorrow, otherwise you won't have time to do anything but review." He glanced at her, "You do intend to review, right?"

"I will."

"Good, I'll look forward to the results on Monday."

That's funny, did she look upset? He couldn't tell, she rarely expressed anything. She got up and said, "Goodnight."

"'Night."

Back to the grind. He moved on to Nino's, moving quickly through her English text and on to Japanese.

Water splashed in the kitchen sink. He glanced past his shoulder and found Nino rinsing the skillet. "Do you always get stuck with the chores?" he asked.

"Huh?"

"I asked are you the only one that does chores?"

"I've been doing this for years." She said as she began furiously scrubbing the burned pan. Miku burned it with the yakisoba. He watched her work for a minute and not once did her eyes leave her work. She'd hardly made eye contact with him all night. Such a rapid shift unsettled him like a red check mark on his homework.

He finished Nino's books and laid them aside, placing her test on top. "This one's yours. Want to take a look?"

"Do you ever take a break?"

"Sure, I brought my chemistry flash cards in case I have downtime."

"You're not kidding, are you?"

"No."

She eyed him suspiciously, "How about you take a break that doesn't involve reading? Too much reading leads to eye strain, right?"

"Like what?"

"Resting? Watching TV?"

"TV is supposed to help my eyes?"

"It's something different."

He considered this, then said, "Alright, why not." He reached for the remote, then paused. He didn't like the idea of Nino at his back the entire night, especially not when he had no idea what she was up to. But he could take this as a chance! He could use this to figure out what was going on in that head of hers!

"What, never worked a TV before?"

He mused, "Hey, you wanna join me?"

"What?" she asked, her voice rising.

"You could use a break too."

He let her think that over and switched on the TV. He found his usual channel and turned to see Nino setting the skillet in the sink to soak and removing her pink rubber gloves. She sat beside him a body away and asked, "What're you watching?"

"Documentary channel."

"Of course," she sighed.

"Got something else in mind?"

She pulled out her phone and said, "It's fine."

He frowned and turned back to the documentary, a late-night special on Japan's seafaring history. This sort of programming's target audience consisted of three distinct persons: academics, history buffs, and shut-ins with limited cable packages. Nino was none of these. Futaro glanced at her, she was glued to her phone.

So she hated the show, which logically meant she was here for him. No people, no distractions, at least none she couldn't tear him away from if she tried. So why did the minutes tick by empty of sound that wasn't from the TV or Nino's phone? The question remained.

There was an obvious answer: she'd been genuine last night. He rejected it immediately. She may have meant well, but Nino was stubborn as a bull mid-charge and nothing could stop all that momentum at once. It had to be a tactic, like an army feinting withdrawal to lure their foes into a flanking cavalry charge. So where was it? He felt like he was reviewing a twenty-step equation and couldn't find where he forgot to carry the three.

He needed more data, and it was coming too slowly from a passive stance. He needed a catalyst, something to trigger the expected reaction and validate his hypothesis.

He grabbed Nino's books and said, "Come here, I want you to look at this."

Nino looked up, "Aren't we on break?"

"It won't take long."

She scooted a bit closer as he opened her math text to the first sticky. Most of her math errors can be attributed to key misunderstandings of core formulas. The faster she ironed out the wrinkles she'd see her score improve by double-digits. He led her through the fourth formula when his mouth stretched into a long yawn that, just when he thought it would end, gained a second life and kept coming.

Nino frowned, "You didn't sleep last night?"

"What makes you say that?" he said, then coughed as the yawn loosened something hard in his throat.

"My tart was still there when I went to bed."

He coughed again and patted his chest and turned to find Nino had disappeared. She returned a moment later with a glass of ice water. "For the cough," she said. He took it, the cold soothing his throat on the way down.

Nino sat and asked, "I bet you did nothing but study when you got home."

"And prepare today's lesson."

"You need to get out more, there's more to life than book learning."

"I know that," he said, then something inside him ignited. There it was! The hook! Nino the fisherwoman had cast her line into the suspecting sea and was ready to reel in her catch! Mind you, she chose horrible bait. The last thing he needed to be doing with his day was...huh. Nino was grinning, as if she'd already won! What did she know? What did he miss? Darn this woman! It was like playing chess against a computer playing checkers!

Wait, no, there it was. He knew this feeling. What did he do to deserve it this time…

_**~Nino~**_

She took Futaro's shoulders as he slackened like a bundle of meat in a plastic bag, guiding his fall from an avalanche to a feather-fall. His head fell into her lap, he looked up at her through heavy eyes, pretty eyes, and asked, "Nino…?"

"Goodnight, Fuu," she said as the weight became too much for his eyes to bear. She moved the hair away from his eyes as Futaro forcefully entered a blissful slumber. If only she'd been given this chance a week ago. But her stars were twinkling just shy of aligning. She'd push them into position one day. But not now, today's victory was an obstacle course in itself, but one she could feel satisfied with. Futaro was finally getting some proper sleep.

She lifted his head and removed herself, replacing it with a spare pillow. She covered him with the comforter and felt complete in a job well done. Time to wrap up tonight's chores and get some rest herself.

And then she noticed the books. Four neat stacks around the kotatsu punctured with dozens of sticky notes, and one lonely pile devoid of attention. The bite marks on the pencil near them were her clue that they were Itsuki's.

She sighed, maybe she should have let him finish before knocking him out. But no going back now, and this was her fault after all. She grabbed Futaro's reference sheet and used her own textbooks as an example, following Futaro's pattern as best he could to complete the last of his work.

There are parts of a teacher's job the student never understands. Their place looking forward offers them a limited perspective of what goes on behind the desk. They never see the drawers full of half-baked exercises and shorthand teachers use to make their job look easy. In acting as Futaro's proxy, Nino took a peek at what goes on behind the desk, and into the hours of effort she had never known.

It took her over half an hour to finish Itsuki's texts, over twice as long as Futaro would have taken, but she got it done. She piled them neatly with the others and stretched her back. It popped like an air gun and she checked to see if it woke Futaro, but he slept on like a...well, like a man on drugs, when she thought about it.

She slid out her chore list and checked the clock. Nearly midnight, and still so much to do. She looked up and the world appeared blurry, she rubbed her eyes and sighed, snatching back her focus. This place wouldn't clean itself.

**A/N**

My intention is to update this story once a week as consecutively as I am able. Most chapters should be around 3-6 thousand words, so I think this is feasible, at least for a time while inspiration is hot.

I have an outline for this story, and by my estimates this work will be around 25-30 chapters of approximately this length. This is not a promise, merely a best guess going off of what I have planned, but things can change, stories and characters can drag me in new directions I wasn't expecting.

Thank you to everyone who's encouraged me thus far, please continue supporting this story as it progresses.

Chapter posted March 14th, 2019


	3. Closing Shop

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 3**

**Closing Shop**

_**~Nino~**_

The clock lied. It had to be. She'd never woken up with the hour hand parallel to the floor. It must be broken, her wristwatch would tell her the truth. When it lied to her too, she suspected conspiracy. Who would benefit the most from throwing her off balance, and what would they have to gain from her losing track of her schedule? Ichika...

Wait, the sun was already shining through the blinds. So she really had overslept. She rubbed her eyes, what was she thinking. A conspiracy, really? Her brain needed to catch up with the sun and get up.

She put on her contacts and stepped into the living room, her sisters surrounding a lovely arrangement of toast, sausage and fresh spring oranges sliced into wedges. Ichika waved, "Rise and shine. About time you showed your face."

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

Itsuki said, "I tried. You glared at me and stole all the covers."

"I don't remember that."

"You were scary."

Nino grumbled and sat down, "So who made breakfast today?"

"I did!" Yotsuba said proudly.

Nino paled, "You...you made this?"

"Yeah! I thought you could use a break."

Oh, but there were four compelling reasons Nino was the only chef in the kitchen. By pure coincidence she also happened to have four sisters. The reason Miku never made their meals was because her food tasted of death. The reason she kept Yotsuba out of the kitchen wasn't because of a lack of skill, in fact her cooking, while simple, was quite tasty. No, her problem was quantity. Once again, the problem wasn't the food. Question! How many dishes would be needed to make this simple arrangement of toast, sausage and fruit? No more than three. Yotsuba used fourteen.

"I guess I went overboard again," Yotsuba said.

"I'll never understand how you do it."

Yotsuba said smugly, "Maximum effort."

Ichika smiled and turned to Nino, "Speaking of effort, what kept you up so late?"

"The usual, what else," she said before taking a bite.

"I noticed Futaro stayed over last night. That wouldn't have anything to do with it, right? Or..."

She eyed Ichika closely, those piercing eyes were searching for anything hinting at guilt. She gave her nothing and turned on the TV, "I had to put up with documentaries all night."

Itsuki sighed, "Does he ever stop?"

"That's what I said."

Miku chewed her toast and said, "I think it's admirable, he's found something he's passionate for."

Yotsuba pondered, "If only we could slice off a bit of that passion cloud and divide it among us, we'd pass for sure."

Miku said, "Don't be ridiculous."

"You're right, we suck at carving things five ways."

Nino asked, "So where'd he go anyways?"

Itsuki said, "Futaro? He left before breakfast."

Yotsuba sighed, "Our scores must be awful, he left looking like a passing car just threw a drink in his face."

Nino jerked, "Oh, did he now."

Itsuki said, "Maybe he'll tell you something at work today. Let us know, okay?"

Work? Right, work. Work involving six hours of close coordination with the person she'd drugged to sleep. The perfect capstone to her weekend.

She stood and said, "Fine, I'll do what I can." She gathered the dishes and headed to the sink.

Yotsuba announced, "Alright! Let's do this!"

Nino gloved up and said, "I've got it, it's nothing." That's all that had to be said. This was the order of movement in the Nakano home. When that hole appeared in their lives, Nino was the one to step up and fill it, and she's occupied it ever since without complaint. So it didn't bother her when none of her sisters insisted, that was just how they were.

The house was empty by the time she finished, she said her goodbyes to each of her sisters as they left for the day. Yotsuba high-tailed it to her part-time job with her usual enthusiasm, followed by Ichika who was slated for another minor supporting role across town. She casually dropped how she wouldn't be home for dinner, and when Nino asked if she wanted a dinner box, she refused and told her that most shoots catered for the entire crew. She had her top five favorite production companies to work with based on their catering quality. Today was number three, they catered French.

Itsuki and Miku were the last, saying they were heading to the library to review Futaro's corrections. They could have done it at home, but Itsuki was tired of spending days at a time cooped up in the same apartment with books for company. Miku wouldn't mind, she used to spend entire weekends in her room with her headphones on. Itsuki insisted on group study and left Miku little choice, so out she went. They offered to wait for Nino, but she refused. She had plans of her own, ones that didn't involve textbooks.

She set the dishes on the drying rack and glanced at the clock. Almost ten, no time for studying now. She'd pick up again after her shift. It wasn't that she was giving up on studies, she was as diligent as any of her sisters, and she wouldn't be the one to hold the others back. But any more time spent staring at books today and her eyes might flee her face in revolt.

She was in a hurry and rushed her makeup, everything was done with quick, practiced precision. She had to forget the little details, no time for perfection, she had to run. She snagged a dress and ran out the door. It was a short walk to the subway and an even shorter ride. The route may be new, but the destination was an old familiar.

"About time, Nino!" one of her friends said when she arrived.

"At least I made it."

"Where are your ribbons?"

She checked her hair and realized she forgot them today. She blushed, realizing how much her late start had thrown off her groove. She brushed it off, "Just thought I'd try something different today. Come on, let's go."

They nodded and the three of them stepped into the department store. These massive complexes of capitalistic spirit were a dime a dozen downtown, but this one was special to her. She knew this store like an old friend; she knew its layout, its inventory rotation, even its sales periods. She'd even known staff from her favorite stores by name, once. But that was in the past, back when she could still afford to shop here.

On the outside nothing had changed. They browsed their favorite brands and picked out promising outfits to try on. But that's where the fun ended, because as soon as she saw the price tags she marveled at all the zeroes she never noticed before.

Budgeting was a new verb in the Nakano household, and a painful lesson to learn. They'd never needed a spending limit in their early adulthood. Each quintuplet was an authorized user on their father's card. His only restriction was that they never use his card to buy something for anyone outside the family. This gave each of them a virtually bottomless wallet, and none of them took greater advantage of this than Nino.

She used to walk through the mall like a princess, the shop attendants bowing in deference to her patronage. And she loved the thrill of the hunt, scavenging fifty ugly outfits to find the perfect one, her diamond in the rough. Money had never been her hindrance, only her patience. But now her finances were stretched thin, too threadbare to afford anything in most of these stores. It made her feel small, and she wondered if the shop attendants saw her any differently when she left empty-handed.

In the end she splurged on a faux-pearl bracelet for twenty-five hundred yen and nothing else. She wore it out, not even needing a bag, unlike her two friends who toted one bag each. She wondered what they thought of this change, and how much longer she'd want to keep joining them when she had no spending power of her own.

They ate a quick lunch at a cafe at one and she said her goodbyes at two. She caught another train and headed back across town. She got off the train and maneuvered her way through the crowds of people like a snake slithering through a rocky field. It was a short walk from there to the cake shop.

She'd have loved to put off this confrontation for a while longer, but the sight of Futaro sitting outside the shop showed her that fate wasn't on her side today. He was eating a piece of ugly cake, she knew the manager let him have the mistake pieces if he arrived early enough. Saved room in the trash, he said. She secretly wondered if Futaro would have considered that too, the cheapskate.

Itsuki said he'd been angry, but there was no point in holding it off. She called out, "Hey, you're here."

He looked up and narrowed his eyes into daggers that pierced her confidence. Was he really this upset? Not that she could blame him, this time made three-for-three successful druggings. She wouldn't be surprised if he trusted anything she gave him anymore.

He asked, "Which one are you?"

Ah, her guilt when up in righteous flames. It felt nice.

"You're not serious."

"You're not playing fair, there's no accessories."

"So I'm just my ribbons?"

He flared, "Nino! Hey, I've got somethi-"

"Save it," she said, too upset to care, "Even now you still can't figure it out. Pathetic."

"Cut that out, it could've been you or Miku, I-"

"Do I look dead in the eye? Did you even notice my hair is shorter? Honestly, you're a real jerk sometimes." She brushed past him and entered the shop, not caring whether he followed or not.

_**~Futaro~**_

This was not how he pictured their conversation going. He'd been waiting all day to tell her how GREAT he slept last night! How was he suddenly in the wrong? Were his now several druggings no longer worth commenting on just because he didn't recognize her on sight? Was it such a powerful insult that it was worth glossing over an actual crime?

It was to her, though. She, who once pined after a time when the five of them were ubiquitous and interchangeable, now couldn't stand not being distinguished from her sisters. What did she want in all this? He didn't know anymore. Nino the enigma.

They weren't on speaking terms for the first hours of their shift. She kept to the kitchen churning out cakes like an automaton while he waited tables. They were like two panthers keeping out of each others' territory, and the distance kept the peace. But then the clock struck seven and the after-dinner rush began, and it was all hands on deck for the hordes of hungry gremlins.

Keep smiling, even if it hurts, you can make it two more hours. Just press it out and you'll be able to head back to your cozy little desk and study until the cricket chorus sings. He could do it!

Then they came. His ears caught them first, bringing their outside voices into their humble shop. They were dressed in jeans and ironic t-shirts. One wore a baseball cap turned backwards, another had hair that looked like it needed way too much attention in the morning.

"Foreigners," Futaro said gloomily.

The manager nodded next to him, "Americans, by the look of it. Go get 'em"

"Not my section."

He gave Futaro a thumbs up,"They're all yours, mister perfect English score."

"...Huh?"

No, no this wasn't good. His English was fantastic ON PAPER! Vocabulary, writing, reading comprehension, these were very different skills from speaking. His manager was throwing him to the sharks covered in sashimi!

"I'll handle it." They turned to the voice, Nino looked to Futaro and nodded to the table filled with cackling Americans.

The manager asked, "How's your English?"

"It's my best subject."

That means nothing and you know it!

The manager nodded, "Take care of them, give it your best effort."

She nodded, caught Futaro's eye for the briefest instant, then headed over to the Americans. The Manager took off his hairnet and held it over his heart, "Your sacrifice will never be forgotten."

"You sound like she's never coming back."

"She might not."

"And you were so willing to sacrifice me."

"You I can afford to lose."

"You really know how to inspire your work force, boss."

Nino crossed the line of no return and greeted their guests. She spoke slowly, carefully assembling her words, _"Hello, welcome to our shop." _The guys cheered, Futaro guessed they were impressed._ "My name is Nino and..." _she paused to find the words, _"I'll be taking care of you._

Futaro refilled water a table over and heard one of the guys say, _"You hear that? She's gonna take care of us."_ His friend must be hard of hearing, Futaro concluded.

Nino took their orders, asking them to repeat their choices more than once, and went back to the cake stand to assemble their desserts. She brought them their cakes and all the guys leaned in. They asked her questions bordering on the personal and seemed very excited to keep her from her other customers. Nino smiled and answered as best she could before insisting she had other tables to service.

Futaro finished refilling the area's waters and heard one of them comment as he passed, _"Can you believe it? Total hottie."_

Futaro wondered if the temperature was too high for them. Maybe they were from Alaska.

"_I'm gonna make a move."_

"_Give it up, man. Totally out of your league."_

"_Have faith, man, have faith."_

"_Did you only come here to pick up chicks?"_

What was that about baby chickens? Japanese eggs were much higher quality than American ones, were they trying to smuggle some chicks back with them? Americans are weird.

"_We're here for three more days. What do you think's gonna happen? Just drop it, man."_

"_Uh-uh. I'm getting her email before we leave."_

That clicked it. Oh no, he had to warn Nino before it was too late.

He made his escape back to the kitchen only to find it empty. He checked the break room, but no luck there either. He realized he must have missed her and power-walked back to the dining area. He was too late, Nino was at the table, scribbling something on a piece of paper. Was she really giving them her email address? The thought of some cocky foreigner emailing Nino unsettled him like a plates shifting in the Earth's crust. He knew something like this would happen eventually, there was no way Nino would stay interested in him for long, they were leagues too different. He just didn't expect it to happen so fast, or with someone _that_ different.

The Americans paid their bill and left. Futaro caught one of the guys check his wallet and pull out a piece of paper, the same one Nino had given him. He tucked it back in and left with a smile.

A while later the crowds were beginning to thin out and the manager gave him and Nino a break. They stepped into the break room and Nino took her seat, stretching in her chair and looking like she could melt into it.

Futaro tested the waters, he still wasn't sure if they were back on speaking terms, "You look worse than after a night of studying. That bad?"

She said, "No, not really. They just talk so fast, you know?"

"You volunteered."

"I did, and it was worth it."

What? Was she talking about the guy she gave her email to?

She caught his eye and grinned, "What're you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

"Wanna know why?"

"Sure, tell me."

Her hand snatched something from her pocket and she fanned a series of bank notes, "Americans tip!"

So many zeroes! The glorious faces of the past dared to grace his presence with their universally accepted value! He mouthed, "So beautiful."

"Isn't it? To think people actually pay more to chat with a pretty girl."

"Ah, is that why you gave them your email?"

She flushed, "You saw that!?"

"What's with your reaction? It wasn't exactly secret."

"I thought you weren't there…"

"You checked for me?"

"Yeah, you weren't supposed to see that," she sighed.

They turned as someone opened the door. The manager peeked his head in and said, "Hey Futaro, I need you to close up for the night."

"Again? Why can't you?"

"Wanna sleep."

"That's not a good excuse!"

"I'll do it," they turned to Nino, "I just have to clean and lock up, right? I can manage that."

The manager eyed Nino for a moment, then looked to Futaro, "If she burns out, I blame you."

"Look in a mirror to find the culprit!"

The manager left and Futaro asked Nino, "You don't need to do this, I can handle it."

"I don't mind, how long can it take?"

"Cleaning the entire kitchen? Washing, mopping, storing?"

"Easy."

"Did you study today?"

"When I get home."

"And your other chores?"

"When I get home."

"Let's do it together then, it'll go faster that way."

"No," Nino said, looking determined, "I don't need your help. Weren't you going to go home and study?"

"That's what I'm asking you!"

"And I will. Once this is done. Goodnight Futaro."

Oh no, she was not getting out of it that easi-she's already leaving. She closed the door and left Futaro to his thoughts. That was a mistake if she wanted him to head home.

If this were any other employee, he could take it at face value as a kindness, or an unspoken promise to cover for them in return when they'd need relief. Nothing more than a favor for a favor. At its core, all logical human interaction was little more than that. That's how the clever ones manipulated other, more desperate people, by finding what they wanted and offering it on a moving string. He convinced himself that if he could figure out what Nino wanted, everything would fall into place. He thought he knew before, but he wasn't sure anymore.

Years ago, he, Raiha and their father had gone on a picnic. After a filling lunch of Raiha's early work, she and their Father sat on the grass and spent the afternoon cloud spotting. Their imaginations turned puffy white nimbus into animals, faces, even their mom. Futaro thought it was silly, all he saw was the coming rain. Yet he couldn't escape a doubt that he was missing something, like he was colorblind in a world of rainbows. He said nothing as his sister and father shaped the clouds into something he couldn't see.

Was that what was happening now? Was he missing that final dimension that would help him understand what anyone normal could see? Maybe he was looking at this the wrong way and wasting energy he could be using studying. Maybe that's all it was, if Nino wanted him to study, or she didn't want time to do it herself. Either way he had it now, might as well use it.

He changed out of his work uniform and packed his bag. He wondered if he should thank her before he left. As he stepped out into the dining area he found Nino checking the cabinets behind the counter. She closed it and eyed each cabinet with suspicion.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said as she grabbed the broom and swept the floor, leaving the cleaning rag dry on the counter-top.

"Cleaning spray?"

"I can get it."

"No, you can't. He doesn't stock it behind the counter." He opened a door marked for employees only and walked inside. It was a small utility closet with all the chemicals and spare uniforms. The manager never showed her this room, given her talent for baking and decorating she'd never be assigned cleaning duty normally, "He keeps them separate from cooking spaces. Make sure you put it back when you're done."

He offered her the spray and she took it with small thanks. He watched her go back to work, alone. Closing was a lonely life, and she took it so he could study. He should respect her wishes, right? He decided he would.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he set his science textbook on the counter.

"Studying," he began, turning the pages to the periodic table. He said, "The noble gases are helium, neon, argon-"

"Why are you talking?"

"I'm studying."

"So loudly?"

"Don't question my methods. And if you happen to overhear me, maybe you'll even learn something." It worked before, didn't it?

Nino made a face mirroring Ichika's when she ate Miku's cooking, "I'm supposed to study and close at the same time? Have I finally reached the lowest level of hell?"

"You asked for both."

"Not at the same time!"

He shrugged, "Again, the noble gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon."

Nino narrowed her eyes, but went back to cleaning. When she went back to the kitchen, Futaro raised his voice until he heard his own echo. He wasn't sure if his methods encouraged her to clean any faster, but she finished much quicker than he ever had.

She arrived changed with her bag in her hand. "Ready to lock up?" he asked.

She closed her eyes and folded her arms, saying, "Helium, neon, um, argon...radon..."

"Out of order."

"Give me a break."

"Again."

"Get out."

He packed his bag and walked out the door. Nino followed and locked the door before slipping the key through the mail slot. She opened her mouth to speak, but Futaro said quickly, "Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, radon."

She said, "I thought these were basics. Aren't you supposed to be studying for yourself?"

"I am, it's review."

"So you don't know them?"

"Of course I do, but I'll never retain it unless I review. Sometimes I have to study something a hundred times before it sticks."

"Sounds like a waste of time."

"When we go shopping, you go through a hundred outfits before finding one you liked. Is that a waste of time?"

"They aren't the same."

He agreed, his was actually productive. He never understood why women, and men too for that matter, spent so much time complicating the simple act of dressing. He had a few good, cheap outfits and they all fit well. What more could he need until winter?

Nino checked her purse and grinned, "Do we get a lot of foreigners?"

"Why? Thinking about leaving the kitchen more often?"

"Maybe," she said, her eyes swimming with possibility.

"You should get a second email if you plan on doing that again."

"Huh?"

"Giving it to them, I mean."

"Oh, that? I didn't give them my email."

"You didn't?"

"No, I gave them Ichika's."

"What? Why would you do that?"

A spark of triumph filled her eyes like starlight, "Payback."

"I'm not following."

"It's a sister thing."

"Opening your sister up to unwanted American courtship is a sister thing?"

"Precisely. You wouldn't understand."

"Not even going to try."

"What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"The kind who gives personal contact information for tips."

"Just not my contact information."

Futaro chucked, he hadn't expected to but he did, it escaped like a convict rushing through the prison gates after waiting years for his chance. Nino asked, "What?"

"No, it's nothing."

"As if. Tell me."

"Just...picturing Ichika's face when they email her."

"I'm hoping to be there to see it. I'll take a picture for you if you ask nicely."

"Won't she know it's you?"

"I want her to know," she said smugly. And Futaro found he was surprised he thought she would do anything else.

This was Nino: when she felt something, she let it be known. She never put on a show disguising her feelings for anyone, and if asked she'd tell you exactly what she thought of you, no matter how flattering or seething. So why had she said something so mind-altering only when he was asleep?

If he asked about that night, she would tell him. And if she told him, maybe he could finally put this to rest. It might be admitting defeat, he would be telling himself he couldn't solve this on his own, or at least not as fast as he needed.

He was not like Nino, he screened every sentence through a sensitivity barrier. He kept his audience in mind and carefully kept his tact. But something in that unexpected laugh had lowered his defenses. On any other night, his common sense would have told him what he was about to ask was a bad idea. He would have found another way to phrase it. But the friendly atmosphere and his own misunderstanding of Nino herself convinced him this was okay to say.

He asked, "What did you mean that night?"

Nino paused, "What?"

"The other night, when you thought I was asleep. What did you mean?"

Futaro missed the early signs of his egregious misstep. She was surprised, but that was expected, he had overheard something he wasn't meant to actually hear, even if it was meant for him. Then, when her eyes hardened into daggers threatening to pin him to the wall, he realized he might have stepped on a landmine.

"You were awake," she said slowly, her sense returning as the pieces came together.

"Yeah, I-"

"That's why you've been acting strangely."

"Me? You're the one who changed-"

"What's left to understand? You heard me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I-"

"And you just pretended to be asleep? Do you realize how weird, and, how creepy that is?"

"What are you getting at? What was I supposed to do, get up in the middle of your confession?"

"Yes! Yes, that would've been loads better than pretending! All of this could've been avoided if you just sat up and asked, you dumbass!"

"No it wouldn't! You didn't even want me hearing it! How is that supposed to help? I'd wake up and you treat me completely different, and I'm just supposed to go with it?"

"Why? What's wrong with that?"

"What isn't!? Or did you think I wouldn't notice? You fly from hate to love to indifference, I'm getting whiplash trying to keep up!"

She glared at him for a long moment, then she laughed without any mirth, "Oh, this is great. Just great. So this is on me for trying to help, right? Shows me for being considerate."

Futaro's teeth pressed together, "Is that what last night was supposed to be?"

"That was a favor, you needed it!"

"Oh, wonderful! I slept great, by the way! Not that I had any choice thanks to you!"

"I was trying to help you!"

"Well I don't need it!" he said, his words hotter than she deserved, but his frustration boiled away his self-control and out they went. He would have taken them back if he could, but they belonged to their history now. And as they hit her he saw their power in how they damaged her fire, a slap in the face for her effort. He stepped back, "I mean, it only complicates things. I don't need any more change."

She scoffed, "Yeah, whatever." She looked at him with something far away in her eyes, then turned away, "Futaro, I love you. But I really don't know why."

She left then, storming off into the night without so much as a backwards glance. Futaro watched her leave and searched his mind for something final to say, something that she wouldn't help but to chew on for the rest of the night. But his frustration strained at his creativity and the only things he could think to say were too mean, too cruel to be said, and he knew he'd regret saying them if he did. Just like what he said before. But it would feel good right now. It would feel right.

And there it was: feel. So much got out of hand because of feelings. He needed to squelch these emotions in utero before they had time to mature and topple whole neighborhoods into problems he couldn't solve. Useless things.

He tried solving this alone and it went nowhere. He tried confronting it, like Nino, and it blew up in his face. He was giving up, he was sick of this unwinnable game.

He left for home where things still made sense.

**A/N**

I should inform you that as I'm in the military, there may be times when I have to deploy and am away from an internet source for some time. If for whatever reason this story is not updating over a period of time, please check my profile, I will have my writing status there. If I can update, I will as early as I am able.

I received plenty of encouragement from readers this last time, I've responded to those I can, and to those I cannot I want to say thank you for your support. I'll continue this story for as long as I am able, to completion if I can. I hope you'll follow along until the end. Please leave feedback, comments, criticisms and thoughts so I can learn and make it that much better. So please review, and I will update soon.

Chapter published March 21st, 2019.


	4. Silent Treatment

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 4**

**Silent Treatment**

_**~Futaro~**_

Things hadn't made sense.

It should have been easy as hopping back on a bicycle. He sat at his desk, turned on the lamp, broke out his book and followed the words on the journey to enlightenment. He could feel rote pulling him into routine, on any other night he'd have fallen into practice without trouble like the well-oiled machine he was. But he carried his problems home with him and they glazed over his eyes like a blindfold. He'd given up and gone to bed, hoping that by morning it would fade like a dream after breakfast. In fact his dream had been so pleasant, a warm summer day at the beach with his references, that he loathed returning to reality where the ugly truth still waited to confront him. He dreaded their inevitable class, would the two of them manage to share a room today without burning it down?

"Brother, you're doing it again," Raiha said.

"What?" he said lowly.

"The face."

"What face?"

"The face! You know, the one you used to make when you sucked at studying."

That face? That was from back when he started taking his studies seriously and he struggled to catch up. He didn't do that anymore.

"There a problem you can't solve, Futaro?" his father asked.

"No."

Father looked to Raiha, "What was it I said the other day?"

"No secrets!"

"Right. Futaro, something on your mind?"

"Thank you for the meal. I'll be going." Futaro stood and took his dishes to the sink.

Raiha said, "Hey! No escaping! Dad, he's making a run for it!"

Futaro grabbed his bag, "Gotta go, see you tonight." He laced his shoes and was out the door moments later. He needed time alone, time to process this. The walk to school would have to suffice.

"Futaro!"

He turned and saw his father outside in his sandals. "Dad, I'll be late-"

"No you won't."

"I'm class rep, I have to be in early."

"You can spare a minute, if the class falls apart without you for that long, you're a crappy rep," he began, his eyes narrowing like lassos hogtying his focus, "If you want to keep this to yourself, fine. You're a growing man, I expect you to start handling things on your own. But we don't ignore each other in this family."

He stepped closer, Futaro felt small in front of his father standing like a sentinel sure in his post. "It's not your business, dad."

"Do you know how long you stared at the same page last night?"

"What?"

"How long?"

"I...what are you getting at?"

"Seventeen minutes."

"You counted?"

"Yup. You weren't studying, something's in your mind like a brain termite."

Futaro scoffed, "What do you know about studying? You were a straight C student right through graduation."

"I don't need an A in trig to tell you've got something on your mind," he said, then grinned and pulled Futaro a bit closer, "You might think you gotta handle whatever's eating at you all by your lonesome. And maybe you do. But we're a team, the three of us, and we're here when you need us. Don't go forgetting that." He let him go, wishing him well at school and making him promise to be home for dinner tonight.

If his father's words were meant to inspire him to feeling better, they failed spectacularly. So much so that he left in a worse mood than before. There shouldn't be a problem in the first place, let alone one that bubbled through his pores and infected his home like a miasma. His father and sister had enough pressures in their own lives, and they still smiled effortlessly. Was he the gloomy black sheep? And how did his father expect to help him? He imagined the stunned expression his father would have if he told him everything, he wouldn't have the slightest clue what to say! How could he, none of it made any sense!

He wished he could go back in time, back to the night at the Nakano's where things began falling apart. He'd pick up his books and storm out into the rain without looking back. Maybe if he got lucky he'd catch cold and have to stay cooped up inside. Think of all the studying he could do! And if the Nakanos dared to disturb him with well-wishes he'd wish them away, and if they persisted he'd sneeze in their general direction. Then he could return and things would be back to normal. Nino would still be aggressive, encouraging his attention, but in a predictable way like a moth bashing a lightbulb. Things could fall back into a routine and he could forget this ever happened.

But time travel was an impossibility and pining to change history was unproductive. He entered the school grounds and braced himself for whatever Nino, or her sisters for that matter, brought with them. He hardened himself like a sheet of ice crusting over in the cold.

He entered the classroom, it was almost empty save for a few early birds, including Takeda. The charming boy shot him a winning smile, it bounced off Futaro's frozen heart like a fly on a window.

Students trickled in by the minute. Futaro ignored them in favor of his books. No one bothered to greet him, even as the class rep he wore an invisibility cloak, which suited him just fine. He needed new distractions like he needed a sunburn.

Speaking of distractions, the Nakanos arrived.

"Morning, Uesugi!" Yotsuba greeted with her usual merriment. He wondered if anything could dampen her spirits.

The rest filed past him to their seats, greeting him in turn. Nino came in last. He wasn't sure what he expected, a glare maybe, or some harsh words following up last night. She wasn't the kind of person to hold back. So when she passed his desk as if it were empty, Nino once again defied his predictions. It only made him angrier.

Class began with the usual Monday fanfare of groans and yawns from his less motivated classmates, meaning all of them. The teacher asked Futaro to pass out today's written assignment. When he got to Nino he held out the paper. She didn't notice, her eyes casually scanned her textbook for something of greater importance than him. He shoved it a little closer, she ignored him the same. He gave up and dropped it on her book before moving on.

So it continued for the rest of the school day. Whether it be passing each other in the halls or running on the track, she ignored his very existence almost professionally. He found himself fuming over his lack of attention and glancing at her several times to catch her in the act. He failed every time, her eyes were always looking somewhere else, never at him, and he chastised himself for looking foolish. He promised himself he couldn't look again, that he'd ignore her the same way. But he wanted to catch her looking, and that want built into a need until he couldn't resist checking just one more time, always feeling like an idiot when he failed. Then the cycle would start again.

She must still blame him for last night. Why? How was this supposed to be his fault? It wasn't his fault he overheard her, if she wanted to keep it private she should've kept it in her head! Where did she get off throwing their entire relationship out the window every few weeks and then getting angry when he had the gall to ask about it?

Fine, he decided. She wanted to ignore him? Let her! He could use the quiet. She might even ignore him long enough for him to get used to it, wouldn't that be a nice change?

He had his plan the moment the final bell rang. Afternoon tutoring was minutes away and he knew exactly how he'd handle it! If Nino wanted to play the silent sister, all the better. Lessons could proceed quicker than ever before. Maybe this would all work out after all.

Miku was the first to arrive, at least it better be Miku. He's become more suspicious since the hot springs incident. Incidents, he corrected. "Hey Miku, glad you're here."

"You are?"

"Yeah, you can get started first," he said and took out a test, if he staggered them out it'd be easier to grade them as they finished one by one.

Miku asked, "I want to ask you something."

"Huh? Sure, what is it?"

"Can you recommend a book for me?"

He glanced around the library, "Something dealing with history?"

"It's up to you."

"You have to give me something, otherwise you might hate it."

Miku stepped closer, "How about one you liked?"

"I'm not sure my tastes match yours."

"Please?"

Futaro sighed and headed towards the stacks. He scanned the dust jackets until he found what he was looking for and pulled it out. He handed it to Miku, saying, "Here, ever heard of historical fiction?"

"Yes."

"I read this in first year. It's a little dry, but you'll recognize a lot of the characters. Let me know when you're done with it."

"I will," Miku said as she opened the book's dust jacket. She scanned the library stamps and found his name, then turned the page.

If all his relations with the quintuplets were as straight-forward as with Miku, he'd sleep as sound as a baby after a mother's lullaby. She showcased a genuine desire to improve, if he presented her with a problem without the answer, she'd have it the next morning. Her growing initiative was well received, and he knew that if he were to disappear for any reasons, Miku would be the one to keep up the pursuit of knowledge, and it made him feel proud seeing how far she'd come. Not that he planned on leaving, there was still work to be done and he wanted to be the one to see it through.

The two returned from the stacks and found Ichika and Itsuki at the table. Ichika watched them emerge and her lips curled into a sly grin, like a snake coiling, "My, what were you two doing back there?"

He was about to chastise Ichika for her teasing, but Miku said first, "Nothing," and quietly walked to her seat holding the book to her chest.

Ichika eyed him and raised a package, "I bought bon-bons. Want one?"

"Put those away, no eating in the library." Ichika looked disappointed and set them aside, Itsuki watching the package closely as she did.

"I'm here!" Yotsuba announced.

He said, "Indoor voice, library."

She covered her mouth, "Oh! Sorry! I'm here," she said in a forced whisper.

So much for staggering them. He asked them, "Where's Nino?"

Yotsuba raised her hand. Futaro said, "You don't need to raise your hand this time, Yotsuba."

"Oh, right. I saw Nino leaving the school. I tried to stop her, but she told me she had to go...wait, she didn't tell me anything!"

"Indoor voice!" Futaro scolded.

She covered her mouth again, nodding, "Okay! Uh, so I don't think she's coming back."

Itsuki asked, "Did she say anything to either of you?" Ichika and Miku shook their heads.

Futaro pinched his nose and sighed, she'd go this far? Well forget her then! If she wanted to get off the train to success, let her! He had four more to carry to greatness!

"Fine! Whatever! Let's-"

"Futaro!" Yotsuba said, pressing her finger to her lips, "In-door-voice!"

Futaro stared, then sighed in defeat. He handed out the tests and said, "Just start already."

_**~Nino~**_

She loved this little cafe in the corner of the mall. Stepping inside was passing through the door into a new world, a place meticulously crafted to suit her refined tastes. And the price of admission was cheap, one cup of coffee came with a table for as long as she cared to stay. Lately even this small luxury had become harder to justify given their thin budget. But she finally had money to burn and she wanted to taste a bit of her old life.

She found a small table upstairs overlooking the rest of the cafe, swooping in just as a young man finished the dregs and packed his bag. She cleaned it with a napkin and sat, breaking out her own study materials and settling in to a very un-Futaro style of learning. She rubbed her tired eyes, she was having trouble focusing today.

Occasionally she'd tire of her company and look down to the cafe crowd. Part of the fun from the second floor was watching the people coming and going, picking up on subtle hints in their gestures and clothes that colored their lives. She spotted a carefree girl in a yellow dress sipping tea with her friends. That had been her not long ago. Now her mind was diluted with questions, worry and stress, those carefree afternoons were gone from her life. Would she ever live them again?

A couple walked into the shop. They lingered just far enough from the counter that the employee hesitated to ask for their order. The girl's arm looped through the boy's, she hugged it closer and whispered while looking at the menu. The boy smiled and pointed, whispering back, the girl shook her head and pointed at something else, laughing as she did.

She couldn't picture herself that way, not anymore. Even if Futaro fell for her, would he ever be that kind of romantic? Could they enjoy those cute couple moments together? She didn't think so. Yet when she tried pondering going with someone else, that unknown face shifted back into him. Her heart wasn't giving up yet in spite of his string of blunders.

Someone else walked in, someone she recognized. Itsuki scanned the lower floor, then glanced up before Nino could hide. Nino cursed as Itsuki stormed up the stairs like a hero taking a castle. Why did heroes storm castles? To rescue maidens or slay dragons. Which was she here to do?

"There you are."

"How'd you find me?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes.

"Lucky guess," Itsuki said, taking the seat across from her. "We used to come here a lot together, the five of us."

"We used to do lots together."

"You're the one who came here alone, Nino."

"And? I can't enjoy a latte by myself anymore?"

"You don't look like you're enjoying anything."

Nino scowled, "I happened to be having a wonderful time at my favorite cafe before your inquisition."

"Oh please, you suck at lying to me."

"Why are you-!" Nino paused, she noticed people glancing their way. She seethed and lowered her voice, "What're you doing here?"

"Did you forget about study hall?"

"Nope."

"So you just skipped?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"Are we tracking attendance now? I didn't want to go today, what of it?"

"Are you tired?"

"Huh? Where did that come from?"

She motioned to her eyes, "You look..."

Nino opened her makeup case and checked herself in the mirror. She'd rubbed away the makeup around her eyes, revealing thin dark lines resting beneath then like crescent moons. She scowled, then took her brush and covered them up.

Itsuki frowned and said, "It doesn't do any good after I've already seen it."

"Whatever. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Let me guess..."

"Don't, not in the mood."

"Something with Uesugi, right?"

"I said I'm not in the mood."

"It couldn't be with any of us, we were fine this morning."

"Are you listening? Shut up!"

"You've been avoiding him all day. And you skipped study hall, so-"

"You're assuming things. Why would I care about anything with that guy?"

Itsuki glared in annoyance, it unsettled Nino. "Oh, so it's nothing? Really?"

"Yeah, really."

She knew this look, it was Itsuki's 'go for the jugular' look, "So blowing him a kiss at work is nothing?"

Nino blinked, "Aw crap, you saw that."

"And joining him in the hot springs, that was nothing too?"

She blanked like falling into a pool of bleach, "How did you..."

"We were talking, I was on the other side. I'd ask what you were doing there, but it wasn't hard to figure out."

Nino felt naked, like she'd been delivered on a silver platter in all her shame. But then she wondered, why was Itsuki there, with Futaro, in the hot springs? Walls be damned, she hated the idea. She seethed, "I can't believe it, you too!?"

Itsuki frowned, "What?"

Nino huffed, crossing her arms, "Great. Just great. That's four of us now."

"...Four?"

"You didn't know? Oh, you'll love this. It isn't even just us, it's Miku and Ichika too."

Itsuki waved her hands desperately trying to clear the air, "Wait, back up! It's not like that, I've got no interest in Uesugi!"

"Then why were you-"

"I can talk to a guy without having the hots for him!"

Nino blinked, "Oh, so you...was that all? So you're not-"

"No. Ew. No."

"That's good, then. Good."

A minute passed in silence, neither of them sure how to break it. Then Itsuki ventured, "So...I knew about Miku, but Ichika?"

Nino exploded, "I know, right!? Where did that come from? Andromeda?"

"That makes three out of five of us. You don't think...it can't be contagious, right? I don't want to be infected."

"Eat me, Itsuki."

"I think I'm safe. He's a decent friend, but there is no way he'd be my type. Ever."

Nino sighed, "That's what I thought, too."

"So what happened? You talked about wanting a fairy tale romance, prince in shining armor and all. And Uesugi is...not that."

"At all, I know."

"So?"

"So, I still love him."

Itsuki froze, "...Love?"

"Yeah. And for the record, I don't even really know why. He's not this dashing knight slaying monsters, he's a nerd who cares more about learning than girls and romance. But every time I needed a knight, he was there. Even after I was a jerk to him, even after we stopped paying him."

"He's planning to collect someday, though."

"Who's tracking that? He isn't, I've never seen him marking the days." Nino sighed, resting her head in her hand, "Like I said, I don't know why I love him, but I'm sure that I do. I feel like...like he and I will fit together if we get close enough. I'm weird, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are." Itsuki stole her latte and sipped it, "But, I think I understand. He's reliable, and passionate, I guess. And he is tall, and not ugly, so that's a plus."

"He needs a new haircut though. Did you know his sister cuts his hair?"

"No way! She's so talented!"

"No, no she's not, that's what I'm saying. Would you let her cut your hair?" Itsuki was silent, and Nino grinned, "Point."

"Whatever. Well, if Miku and Ichika like him too, there must be something attractive about him. Technically, Yotsuba and I are the weird ones for not seeing it," she paused, "You don't think..."

"Yotsuba couldn't hide it if she did."

"I didn't think so. But still, the three of you liking the same guy, I don't see that ending well."

Nino sighed, "I know. To tell the truth, it already got a bit ugly."

"Is that why you skipped today?"

"No, that's between me and him."

"Well, it'll only get worse if one of you actually starts dating him."

"I don't think so. I mean, we're sisters. That's way more important than any guy. Way more."

"So if Ichika dated him, you'd be fine?"

"Yeah. Of course it'd suck, but I'd get over it. And she'd better do the same for me."

"For all this talk, you don't seem to want anything to do with him now."

Nino sat back in her chair, "Because he's an insensitive idiot. He made me feel like a moron."

"He does that every day at study hall."

"I mean emotionally."

"Okay, what happened?"

Nino sighed, "You really want to hear it?"

"Lay it on me."

Nino leaned in and told her everything from Friday night to now. She found herself eager to talk about this, like she was an over-inflated balloon ready to gush the moment someone loosened her string. She talked until she was red in the face, her pitch rising as her lingering frustration entered her tone like hot sauce as she described last night.

Itsuki listened patiently and nodded, "You're right, he's an idiot. And so are you."

"What? How is this my fault?"

"I didn't say that, and it's both your faults."

"No, it's not!"

"You really don't get Uesugi, do you?"

"Of course I do, he's the one-"

Itsuki held up her hand, "Listen. Do you remember the time Yotsuba asked Futaro a question about the English word _tide_?"

"No."

"Well Uesugi explained it was the ebb and flow of water levels affected by the moon's gravity. Yotsuba said that didn't make sense, this passage was dealing with cleaning. He didn't answer right away. He went quiet, then checked his books for twenty minutes without saying a word. Then he made a big show after he found the answer, how the passage was talking about a brand of detergent."

"Oh, that. I remember now. His eyes were...scary. What does that have to do with anything."

"So Uesugi is a problem-solver, and he works alone. He doesn't share anything until he understands it, and he obsesses over it until he does. Of course he'd react that way."

"But he wasn't supposed to hear-"

"And what if he didn't and you suddenly changed overnight? He'd do the same thing!"

She huffed and crossed her arms, "That is not my fault. Why does he have to dissect every detail? I was trying to do something nice for him."

"Well, good intentions are just that: intentions. You both went about this the wrong way."

Nino leaned back and looked at the ceiling. She still didn't feel like she did anything wrong, but she tried seeing Itsuki's point. Maybe she had a clearer perspective as an uninterested party, or maybe she was just better at picking out those little details.

"I suppose," she relented, "Why did I fall for a weird one?"

"Beats me. Maybe you should forget about it."

"No," she said too quickly, "Not gonna happen."

"So stop complaining."

"Isn't that one of the benefits of having sisters? I thought sharing was healthy."

"It is, just not too much," Itsuki grinned, then said, "You know, you've got your work cut out for yourself with him."

"What do you mean?"

"Just something I picked up on. You notice guys checking us out, right? Their eyes dip just long enough to get the full picture? And maybe a little more if they don't care about getting caught?"

"Yeah, it's annoying. But that's what guys do, isn't it?"

"Well get this: Uesugi has never done that."

Nino scoffed and tried to think of a counter example, and realized she couldn't remember any. "No way..."

"Yes way. I don't know if he's mastered eye contact, but he's never checked any of us out, at least I've never seen it. Have you?"

"No, now that you mention it. Not even in the hot spring. I mean, I was wearing a towel, don't get me wrong! But he, he didn't look."

"There was one time I thought I saw him looking at your legs-don't get excited Nino, he was just looking at his student notebook you had in your pocket."

Nino glared, "So you think he doesn't see any of us that way? Like, we're not attractive to him?"

"I don't think that's it. I've never seen him look at _any_ girl that way."

"My, what a gentleman," Nino said mockingly.

"You think if he looked closer, he'd be able to tell us apart by now?"

"Doubt it," Nino said as she bitterly recalled his questioning her identity the other day. There was plenty he could say to hurt her if he wanted. He could call her stupid, shallow, a burden, anything like that would make her wince like a blow. But that one question asked so effortlessly, as if it barely mattered which sister he was meeting, it irked her like wearing a different shoe on each foot.

And just like falling in love, in an instant she decided what she wanted. She would make him notice her without the need for that damn question. Who am I? You'll see, Futaro. You damn well better see.

"Itsuki, finish my latte. You're coming with me."

She downed the cup and asked, "What are we doing?"

Nino grinned, hiding her fear, "You're making sure I go through with this no matter what!"

_**~Futaro~**_

Today would be different, he told himself. He wasn't going to worry about anything quintuplet-related until after class, and then only for two hours of focused study. And at no point would anything Nino-specific disturb his concentration. He wasn't going to worry about her silent treatment or her skipping afternoon tutoring. He'd work with what he was given and go from there.

It felt good to arrive to class optimistically. He could look forward to lecture and learning, and no one, specifically someone, was going to take that away.

Ah, the quintuplets were arriving. He waved hello as they passed. But something caught his eye. He glanced up and saw something glistening beneath Nino's hair, tiny emeralds on each ear that caught the light. So she actually went through with it. Good for her, he thought.

He thought nothing more of it for the rest of the day. He felt bloated with all the knowledge he absorbed, it was beautiful! Later, as he entered the library to prep for study hall, he found one of the sisters already in her seat. She turned, she wasn't wearing any of their standard accessories. But he caught that same green sparkle in her hair.

He pulled out a paper and handed it to her, "You missed this yesterday. Finish it quickly."

She took it and set to work without comment. But as he took his seat and watched her leaning over her paper, he caught a warm smile on her lips.

What happened? Why was she smiling? What did he do? Why? Why? Why!?

In an instant all of his resolve to ignore their antics melted like a fallen ice cream cone on a midsummer's day. A question of why she changed again capstoned the unsteady pile he'd discarded, and that tiny weight toppled the mountain into a landslide that buried his focus.

He stood and headed for the stacks. He needed time to think, to get away from her and all this uncertain change. It was too much to guess, too many distractions. But the walls of written knowledge brought no comfort and his mind was still dragged into disorder. And he realized he would never get it back until he solved this.

Futaro was tired of it, he realized. He couldn't work properly until he was certain what was going on, and it was taking too long to figure this out on his own.

He needed to talk with someone.

**A/N**

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who's provided feedback for this story so far, and in particular those who took the time to validate its worth before others. Those that I can reply to, I have, and some have responded anonymously and so I cannot reply to you personally, but know that your comments have been a boon to myself and my desire to write. Sometimes writing feels like throwing bottles with notes stuffed inside into a sea of broken glass, and it's been encouraging to hear back from those who found my bottle and found what story I had to tell as being worth their time. So I'm going to keep going with this, and I hope you'll continue giving my work a chance, and that this story will live up to what it can be.

Chapter published March 28th, 2019.


	5. The Last Question

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 5**

**The Last Question**

_**~Nino~**_

"Wow, so it didn't hurt?" Ichika asked.

Nino said, "Not at all, I barely felt a thing!"

Itsuki said, "Liar. You cried as I held you down."

Nino leered, "I told you not to say that!"

Ichika lit up, "Wow, why would you even do that?"

Itsuki said, "She told me to, she knew she'd need it."

"I told you not to say that too!"

Miku looked up from her book, some historical fiction book she'd checked out two days ago, and said, "Quiet, we're in a library."

Nino huffed and dropped to her seat, "Well it doesn't matter, I got it done. And I never have to go through that again."

Ichika mused, "I hear navel piercings will be all the rage this summer."

Nino deadpanned, "Don't even joke about that."

She played with the tiny simulated emerald stud poking through her new piercings. These combined with the piercings themselves burned through the rest of her tip, but as she looked at herself in the mirror and saw them catch the light through her waterfall of hair, she was happy with them. She felt like she'd finally made the leap after hesitating for months at the cliff and was happily swimming in the lake after splashdown. If only she could wipe the horrible memory of the necessary stabbings she'd be perfectly content.

Ichika checked her watch and announced, "Alright, he's now fifteen minutes late. Anyone else have anything new going on?"

"Shouldn't you? Don't you have that premiere next week?" Itsuki asked.

"Oh, let's not get into that," Ichika tried, and failed, to change the conversation.

Nino said, "Oh, is that what that fancy dress is for?"

"What, that old thing? It's just-"

"Wow, it must be great hanging out with the finer crowds. Walking the red carpet. Getting blinded by hundreds of flashing cameras-"

"Okay, we're done," Ichika cut her off.

Itsuki pointed to Miku's book, "Is that any good?"

"I'm enjoying it."

Nino said, "You've didn't used to do much reading. Is it because we didn't bring your computer?"

"...Not exactly."

Ichika asked, "So what're you reading?"

Miku turned the page and leaned into her book, "Just something Futaro picked out for me."

Ichika's grin strained like it was stretched with meat hooks, "Oh, really? That's...great."

Nino glared at the book like it blew her a raspberry. While she and Futaro were circling each other like wary dogs, and Ichika was off who knows where, clever Miku was worming her way into Futaro's sphere inch by inch, as if they were children on a bus and she scooted closer each time he wasn't looking.

Let's propose that the old saying is true and men want to marry a female version of themselves. Out of the five siblings, who was closer in personality to Futaro than quiet, unassuming Miku? The two might someday share many quiet nights pursuing their respective mental passions at the same table and call it a date. They'd live their lives as shut-in lovers.

For once, Nino thanked Futaro for his unwavering focus to the ignorance of his surroundings. The sky could rain meteors and Futaro would only be interested if someone challenged him to calculate their velocity. Miku's affections were genuine, but subtle, they passed over Futaro like the coming tide on rocks. But the tide shaped rock down with time. If Futaro noticed, would he be drawn to Miku's quiet affection over her own boisterous displays? She couldn't afford to discount Miku as competition any longer.

And then she felt sorrow melting her core like her heart were a candle burning her wax chest. When had sisterhood rivalry transformed into trials of love? She'd rather challenge her friends for a boy's affection if she had to challenge anyone at all. As their previous school had proven, friends were precious, but replaceable. Her sisters were forever. Maybe it'd be easier if Futaro rejected all of them and they grew closer consoling each others' broken hearts. Just the five of them, together.

But she wanted it all. She wanted everything she loved to share space in her life. She'd make this work, she knew it.

Yotsuba sprinted into the room and announced, "I found-!"

Miku shushed her, "Library."

"Oh! Sorry! I found him." Ah Yotsuba, you should've been born a bloodhound. But Nino realized what that would make the five of them and immediately redacted the thought.

Ichika said, "Excellent, where is he?"

"About that," she said as she showcased a stack of papers, "He isn't coming. He wants us to finish these by tomorrow morning."

Miku looked at her book sadly, no longer enjoying it.

Itsuki frowned, "He's skipping? That isn't like him."

"He said he has family business and has to go home early."

Nino tried to say something, but was stopped by an overwhelming yawn that refused to end. Her eyes watered from the strain and she blinked away the would-be tears.

Ichika sighed, "Alright then. You think he'd have told us something earlier if he wasn't going to be here."

Nino agreed, it was unlike the meticulous Futaro who following a schedule like a personal gospel. He wouldn't have kept them waiting if he knew he wouldn't be here, they'd have learned about this first thing in the morning.

Something had come up. Something he wouldn't share with the five of them. What was it?

_**~Futaro~**_

"Dad, you home?" Futaro asked as he opened the door.

His father turned from the TV and said, "When did you start coming home on time?"

"I can ask you the same."

Raiha added, "Aren't you supposed to be with the Nakanos?"

"I took a rain check," he began, then asked, "Dad, I need your help with something."

His father asked, "What is it?"

"I want to talk with you. It's, about a girl."

If the sky began to fall, the sun blinked out of existence, or the dinosaurs rose from the earth to reign once more...those things would be completely unexpected. This wasn't a sign of the end times, they weren't that dramatic. But this might be the closest to apocalyptic they'd ever come.

Raiha gasped, "Oh my god, a girl? Brother, this is amazing! Quick, sit down! Tell us everything!"

Father stood, "Raiha, we're going out. Guard the fort."

"What!? You're leaving!?"

"We should be back for dinner. I think."

"That's not fair! No secrets, remember?"

"No secrets, just things a father must tell his son. You'll understand someday."

His father slipped on his sneakers and snagged a coat on his way out the door. Futaro dropped his backpack and followed his father into the welcoming chill.

His father asked, "Hungry? We can grab something from a snack cart on the way."

"Where are we going?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not really."

"Then let's take a walk," his father said, taking off before Futaro could answer. He followed, not knowing if his father had a destination in mind, but trusting his direction.

They walked two blocks in silence. Futaro waited for the questions to come like a volley of arrows and readied his stoicism as his shield. He'd never been a very good son when it came to listening to his father. His early years were spent repeating his father's mistakes, and his turnaround wasn't inspired by his father's example. He became a model student of his own volition. His father accepted this change with grace and gave Futaro space to excel.

But every once in a while his father practiced his parental prerogative and pried. He insisted on asking those probing questions to pick at his core, and Futaro firmly rejected them. He's come to appreciate handling his own affairs and building his own path. He wanted to be a markedly different man than his father. Not that his father wasn't admirable in his own right, he was a kind, hardworking family man who always placed his loved ones first. What standard of living they had they owed to his efforts. Futaro had a different perspective on success, and that road was paved with tests at the high end of the bell curve.

He didn't want to come asking life advice from anyone, his father included. But here he was, his deference to his father his resignation. And yet the one time he gave his father permission to exercise his pedagogic muscles, he went silent.

They walked past a pawn shop, his father peered through the glass in search of a deal of the day. His eyes were captured by an old music box, the kind using thin metal strips and a rotating pin block to play and endless tune. Futaro frowned and thought his father wasn't taking this seriously. When his father shrugged and moved on, Futaro lost his patience and asked, "Aren't you going to say something?"

"Why? You should start."

"Haven't you always wanted to lecture me? Well now's your chance."

"Nah, this is different, you came to me."

"I thought you'd be more like Raiha. How is this time any different?"

"What good will it do us if I start, I don't even know what's wrong. You're the problem-solver, you must be stumped as a clear-cut forest if you're coming to me. So why don't you guide me to where you'll stuck and I'll see if I can take it from there?"

Huh, that was surprisingly perceptive of dad. Maybe he never gave his old man enough credit. He said, "A while ago, a girl confessed to me." His father nodded, he waited for Futaro to continue, "It's someone you know."

"One of the Nakanos? Is it Itsuki?"

"No, how do you know it's one of them?"

"Do you even talk with anyone else in school?"

"No."

"So which one?"

His father was more intuitive than he expected, "Remember after I started tutoring I'd come home complaining about each of them?"

"You wouldn't shut up about it."

"Remember the one who hated me?"

"Ah, makes sense."

"How does that make sense!?"

"Love, hate, strong emotions. They're closer than you think."

"That's not how love works."

"How would you know?"

"I read about it."

"Of course you did. Ah, forget it, it doesn't matter, might even be nothing. So she confessed to you, so something changed. What was it?" They entered the park near their home, little more than a vacant lot the city purchased and stuck some benches on. But it was quiet and isolated enough for the two.

Futaro said, "That's part of what I don't get. She used to hate me! She barely tolerated my existence, and she sabotaged me whenever I tried making them study! She fought me for months, all the way up to the final exams! And then! And then, she tells me she loves me out of nowhere!"

His father nodded, "I see, so you can't understand-"

"I'm not even done yet! So after she tells me she loves me, she says she wants to make me understand her feelings. So she gets a job at my cake shop, she finds excuses to be alone with me, she makes me food-"

"Sounds awful."

"And then, just last Friday, she changes again! She pulls back and tries acting completely neutral, because I'm getting stressed out from everything, and I just...I don't know what's going on. I thought she had an angle, but when I asked her about it she got upset, and now, I don't know. I really don't know. The littlest things set me off and I can't stop thinking about it."

His father sat on a veteran bench and looked into the cloudy sky, probably wondering if rain was coming. Futaro settled into his seat and waited, growing frustrated with each passive second. He'd presented the equation, now he wanted the missing pieces. But if his father had any, he wasn't in a hurry to supply them.

His father glanced sideways as if remembering Futaro was there, "And?"

"That's it, you're all caught up."

"Oh, I thought there'd be more."

Futaro sighed, "So you got nothing?"

"No, I think I got it."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. And I'm not surprised you couldn't figure this out on your own, it's not your field of expertise. You may be the smartest egg in the hen-house, but you're clueless once you hatch and leave the nest."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means you can handle anything that can be scored between zero and a hundred, but you fall apart once you step into the real world."

"I didn't come here to be insulted, dad."

"Who's insulting? You came to me, I'm here to help."

"This doesn't have anything to do with it, you've wanted to tell me this for years, you just tried again last Saturday."

"I keep it to myself well enough, I know you won't listen unless you want to, you don't think I have anything worth knowing. And maybe you're right, my type of knowledge is different from yours, and I knew you'd never listen unless you came to me willingly. So here it is, listen, or don't. Up to you."

"We're not here so you can tell me what you've kept bottled up about me for years. I came because I had a problem, they have nothing to do with each other."

"They have everything to do with each other. Tell me something Futaro, if you're at a dead end with this, why is it so obvious to me?"

"Because you're an emotional savant?"

"No, it's because you keep calling this a problem. A problem you can break out on paper, apply a rule or formula, and come up with an answer. It's a perfectly logical eight-by-eleven-point-five world where everything falls into place."

"Because that's the way the world is. The universe is built on common-sense laws of matter and energy, and we're based on those building blocks. Everything is the reaction of one or more actions, everything can be explained."

"So go on then, explain her. Can you do that?"

"I wouldn't be here if I could do it myself."

"Let's try something else then. This entire time you've been focusing on her actions, what she does and why you think she does it. So let's change the subject. What is your reaction, Futaro? She says she hates you, or loves you, what do you do about it?"

"I told you, I'm getting stressed and losing sleep, and I-"

"So why don't you stop? You claim you can control your other urges, why can't you control this one?"

"Because I..." Futaro trailed off, as if the words had been primed on his tongue but failed to launch when commanded. He'd underestimated his father's wit.

His Father stood up, "Let's stop pretending we can understand this girl and ask if you can even understand yourself. You can't control her, but you claim to control yourself. So let's focus on that. We know how she feels about you, but how do you feel about her?"

"I don't feel anything."

"You teach them without pay, you feel something."

"Fine! They're friends, happy?"

"I didn't ask about them, just her. That's what this is about, isn't it? That's why you can't let this 'problem' go."

Futaro leaned back on the bench as if his father were leading an inquisition, "What about her? It's the same. I don't feel anything more."

"That's not true."

"You think I'm in love with her too?"

"I didn't say anything about love. Feelings encompass the entire emotional spectrum, from the peaks of love to the underworld of hate. Now tell me, who is she to you?"

Futaro said nothing, because he had nothing to share. Categorizing relationships on emotion isn't something he practiced. He recognized societal roles; teachers, classmates, colleagues, managers, even family members. He knew what was expected in each role and followed them like a master of Confucian classics. These five were anomalies, but he simply filed them away in a new, miscellaneous role titled 'partners'.

So what were his feelings for Nino? Nothing. He'd have been silent about the other four as well. Save for his father and sister, his heart was empty.

His father waved, "Come on, I've got something to show you."

"Where is it?"

"Far."

They took a bus seven stops, then transferred to another line for three more before getting off at a minuscule bus stop on the outskirts of a high-rise community. The bus stop was little more than a pair of benches and a tin covering held up by a pair of wooden supports that had borne its weight for a generation.

Futaro prepared to follow his father further, but his dad settled onto the bench. Futaro joined him and asked, "What's our next line?"

"No transfer, we're here."

"This is it? This bus stop?"

"Yup."

"...is it special?"

"Not really, pretty standard. Nice to see there's no graffiti."

"Okay, just tell me what I'm missing."

"This is supposed to help, not stress you out."

Futaro grit his teeth, "Just. Tell me."

"This is where your mom fell in love with me."

Futaro jerked, "Mom? You mean here, she-uh, wait, what does that have to do with anything?"

"Hear me out. You might not believe this, but your old man was quite the troublemaker in his younger years."

"I have no trouble believing that."

"Well that started to change when I met your mom. I never told you how I met her, did I? I met her through a buddy of mine, his sister was friends with her. The first night I met her, I knew I wanted her, but she made it clear she didn't want me. It took me months to convince her to give me a chance, and I had to do a lot of reflecting on who I was and where I was going before she agreed.

"Naturally I was head over heels. Her, well, if I'd suddenly disappeared, she'd have slept just fine. I know that's true, by the way, she told me herself. But she kept letting me try. Then one day a few months after we started dating, we made plans to meet at this bus stop after my shift ended. I'm about to leave when my boss calls me in and tells me there's an opportunity at a warehouse across town that comes with a raise, but I needed to fill out paperwork with him right then. I called her mom, your grandmother, and asked her to tell your mom I'd be late. Only the message never got passed, I found out later she kept it to herself hoping your mother would break up with me. She waited two hours for me at the bus stop, and when I finally arrived she was angry as a beehive who lost its queen to kids throwing pebbles. But she hugs me first this time, and she tells me never to do that again. After that, she starts acting sweeter to me, like someone turned her temperature up."

His father closed his eyes, remembering those halcyon days when life was so much simpler, then continued, "She didn't tell me this until after we married, but she waited on that bench for hours not knowing what happened to me. You know how people expect the worst when they don't have news. She thought about everything that could have happened to me on the way here. And it made her realize what I meant to her, how I'd tiptoed into her heart. And as she thought about our entire relationship, and everything we were, and might be, she realized she loved me, and she didn't want me to disappear." He grinned, "That transfer was the best thing that ever happened to me."

Futaro sat back and wondered if this is where his mother was sitting all those years ago. And he wondered, "But what does that have to do with me?"

"You were born because of it."

"I mean now."

"The fact that you still can't understand means you're emotionally the dumbest boy I know-"

"-That doesn't-"

-and so you need to learn!"

Futaro blinked, "How?"

"Here's my answer: human beings are more complicated than any equation and will never be understood. But it's worth trying."

Futaro sighed, "So I'm the one that needs to change? All of this is my fault?"

"Were you listening to anything I said? Fault has nothing to do with it. But you'll never understand unless you learn about people. Not the greats of history you can find in a book, people! Then you can ask yourself how you feel about others, and how you feel about her."

"That sounds like something from a romance novels."

"It isn't. It might be love, it probably isn't, but it could be anything because you don't know yourself. At least if you learn to understand what you feel, you'll have an answer."

Futaro shook his head, "That isn't the answer I want. I don't need romance, or love, or feelings. I get that they're supposed to be this wondrous things, and that people spend their lives wanting them, but I don't! I don't want to be in love, I don't want to feel like I'm a slave to an urge! I want to be better than that!"

"Better? Nothing was better than being loved by your mother."

"You're such a romantic. How do you even know, it's not like you tested every woman in the world. Love is a statistical convenience."

"You're right about that. Maybe I'd have been happier with a Roma lass, or a woman from Sri Lanka who's never seen a skyscraper, how can I know? But I never think about it. Even if love is convenient, I was happy with your mother, and we built a good life. And even though she left us before her time, that feeling lives on in me, in you, in Raiha, and I'm more fulfilled than if I chose a lonely life, and I still have plenty of time to fill it even more. It's not too late for you to start, either."

"I'm not trying to, it's just not for me! Love, and all those other things, they'd just distract me!"

"You were born from it, you were raised in it. It's part of who you are, and even if you bury it down to the soles of your feet, it will still be what carries you every day. You want to be something more than human, Futaro? Well sometimes I want to be a bird and fly free. But I'm a man, and I'm all a man is. You won't get anywhere denying a part of yourself. Your desires don't have to control you, but you'll never amputate them. It's part of being human, Futaro. Maybe you should study that too."

His father stood and stretched, "That's all I have, son. Take it or leave it. Let's head back. Or, would you like to stay here a while and think? It worked for your mom."

"I'm not mom," Futaro said and stood. They crossed the street together to the opposite stop and caught the bus home.

_**~Futaro~**_

Sometimes in order to solve a problem, you needed to look at it from another perspective, or even tear it apart and dissect its parts one by one. Futaro had tried asking his father because he'd thought if his father could drag him to his more vigorous standing, he'd see the pieces he failed to grasp. But it was a mistake, his father had in fact seen him as the problem, and apparently they had more in common than Futaro thought, because his father tore him apart to solve it.

Dad was chipper returning home. How long had he been waiting for permission to rip into his son for all his perceived flaws? Futaro felt like a gullible buffoon for throwing the floodgates wide open.

He'd ignored his sister's probing stare and readied himself at his desk for an evening of studying. Falling back into habit should help him forget about today's embarrassment. But if his mind was already cracking from Nino's assaults, it was ready to crumble after time with his father.

How was he related to that man? They had absolutely nothing in common, at least not anymore. Maybe his mother loved his father less than he bragged and he was secretly the lovechild of some genius scientist who shielded his emotions like maidens in a vault.

Oh dammit, there he goes making crazy theories again. What the hell was wrong with him!?

He was drawn out of his private pity-party when his phone buzzed. He pulled it out and checked the message.

_How'd it go?_

He thought about how to respond, and decided to ask.

_Can I call?_

He waited several minutes before giving up, she wasn't getting back to him. Then, right as he set it down, it buzzed.

_Had to step outside, ready!_

Step outside? Not a bad idea. He told his family he'd be out for a bit. His dad told him to grab a jacket this time of night. He opened the closet and rifled through his clothes, stopping at the coat Nino had picked out for him for the class trip. The sight of it annoyed him, he snatched a pullover and headed outside.

He dialed and counted the rings, one, two. She answered, "Hey!"

"Hey Yotsuba."

"Don't keep me waiting. How'd it go?"

"Not great."

"Aww, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you had a good idea, it just didn't work out."

"I thought he'd give you better advice than I could."

"I'm sure it was good for someone, just not me. And thanks for covering for me, how'd your sisters take me skipping out?"

"Not bad, I think we needed a day's break anyways."

"Good, but be ready tomorrow, I'm making up for today."

"Got it!" she said, then paused, "So, what did your dad say?"

"Huh?"

"I'm curious, what did he tell you?"

Futaro wondered how she'd react if he told her. He imagined she'd be much more receptive to her father's teachings than he was, but Yotsuba was powered by bursts of inspiration, it could be expected.

And then he wondered what she'd think of him. If she'd heard the full conversation, would she agree? He decided to ask, "Yotsuba, before I tell you, can I ask something?"

"Sure!"

"I want you to be honest."

"Okay."

"Am I stubborn?"

"Like a boulder." Ouch, not even a hint of hesitation.

"...Really?"

"You don't think so?"

"I never thought about it."

"Hey, hey! Don't sound so down! It's good to stand by your principles!" Was she trying to cheer him up? Did he sound that disheartened?

"Maybe. So you still wanna hear what happened?"

"Yup! I'm all ears."

He gave her every detail as best he could, trying not to make it too analytical. He couldn't help favoring his own side, but he tried to present details as impartially as possible like a historical record.

When he finished, he asked, "So what do you think?"

"Uh, I have no idea. That's a lot to unpack."

"But is he right?"

"Well..."

"Yotsuba, I can take it."

"...he's not wrong. I think! I mean, he makes good points. You...does that make you sad?"

It's funny, hearing it from dad made him righteously angry, but Yotsuba didn't press an attack. Even her admission felt like a soft pat on the head, a reward for his efforts. "No, not sad. Maybe I just needed to hear it from someone else."

"And it's not like you're an emotionless monster. You can be really happy sometimes! Remember that time in the park?"

"How can I forget. I admit it, I...I was happy that time. But it isn't something I set out to feel, it's like every time it happens my defenses are broken and it comes out."

"Uesugi, that sounds bad. Are we bad for you?" Oh no, she sounded so sad.

"No! No, that isn't what I mean. It's just, that isn't who I want to be."

"Who do you want to be?" Ah Yotsuba, always so direct, so simple, and unlike Nino he never doubted her sincerity. It was refreshing.

"I want to be someone people can rely on. Someone useful."

"And that's why you study so hard? And why you don't want to feel, or be controlled by, er, urges?"

"That's one way to put it."

"Why can't you do both?"

"Because I wouldn't be as good as I am now. If I let myself get distracted, I'll be less useful."

"I dunno..." Yotsuba trailed off, then came back in a rush, "But I guess you would know! I mean, you are the smart one!"

He used to be, he wasn't sure about that anymore. Nino, his father, now Yotsuba spoke in ways that chipped the foundations of his worldview, and they stood by with such certainty. If he could put the pieces together himself, he'd be able to brush it all away. But he was even more clueless than before.

If all the world was saying you were wrong, would you believe them? He was dedicated to this focused road to an isolated future. And yet when even Yotsuba, honest-to-a-fault Yotsuba, thought he might be mistaken, he couldn't help but ask himself if he was.

If he were feeling now, what would it be? Gratitude? Resentment? Something in between? Maybe he could test it, Yotsuba wouldn't mind. At least he hoped.

"Hey, Yotsuba?"

"Yes?"

"Can you call me by my first name?"

"Huh? Why?"

"I want to see what it feels like."

Yotsuba's side went dead for several seconds, then she said, "Futaro?"

"Yes?"

"How was it?"

He felt nothing, but he didn't want to tell her that now, "I'll tell you later. Thanks for listening. And, for everything else today."

"No problem, Futaro-oh, I mean-"

"Futaro's fine. I think we passed that point a long time ago."

"Really? Wow! Okay, goodnight Futaro!"

"Goodnight Yotsuba."

He continued his faux studying past dinner and into the night when everyone else was asleep. He thought he'd considered every angle, every aspect of the problem. He prided himself in being thorough, never missing a single element essential to solutions. But was this, as his father would say, human problem, unsolvable because he refused to grow outside his narrow lane?

Emotions were the death knell of logical thought. It clouded judgment like navigating in a blizzard. How was he supposed to learn from that? Or, was there some figment of truth within emotional intelligence he never discovered because he'd discarded the subject as a whole? Was that the root of his failure?

Maybe he needed a test. Yes, a test! An emotional trial, a test run of feelings. He'd plot a safari into this unknown territory and see what he could find. And if it was useless, as he suspected, he'd discard it wholesale and search for another avenue to understanding.

But how was he to do it? Ignoring feelings was as natural to him as rivers flowing downhill. He's spent years mentally honing his focus to ignore bodily desires and emotional whims. It was a habit strong and permanent as carvings in rock. So where could he start? It had to be with those five, that's where all this chaos began. If he threw himself wholly into it maybe he'd feel a spark that would light a trail to what he was looking for.

He took the five copies of tutoring material he prepared for tomorrow. Each was headlined with a single blank space. Five uniform papers for five identical sisters. It was only after they put their names on them that they gained real meaning. So Futaro did something he never did: he assigned them. He filled in each of their names on top, and the forms were no longer replaceable. This one belonged to Ichika, and he could already see her tight, neat scrawl filling in blanks. He picked up Yotsuba's and imagined her tall strokes filling space like water fills a tub, while Miku's would be so small, like it was trying to hide from his gaze. Itsuki's would have notes in the margins asking for additional information. And Nino, well.

What did he do that made her fall in love? He may not embrace the concept, but he understood the reverence it held. As part of his studies he'd read the old poets searching for the words to describe such a delicate, bountiful gift. Why anyone, Nino of all people, would grant him hers was incomprehensible. She wanted a proper romance filled with idyllic standards of masculinity straight out of a dream. Why did she settle for him?

But then so many love stories finished without the protagonist receiving affection in turn. Love was selfish at its core, it was a fire burning bright that demanded to be seen like a lighthouse in the night. Nino dragged his unwilling eyes to her passion out of selfishness. He should be angry with her, unfortunately his own understanding of love has shifted, and while he still rejected the concept for himself, he understood its appeal to others and no longer considered it an absolute waste of spirit. So he couldn't discount her feelings, even if he couldn't return them, or even understand them.

And then for the first time he was hit by the full weight of being loved. Someone has chosen to commit a portion of their precious lifetime approaching him, thinking about him, and caring for his well-being. And with that love came all the deceptions and tribulations multiplied by his own apathetic response. And yet she kept coming back. This was Nino, stubborn as a salmon swimming upstream. For him.

He felt his cheeks burning, his heart quickening as he fully comprehended that he was loved. He thought to suppress the feeling, but remembered his test and struggled to ignore his instinct. He felt warm, like his organs were an oven cooking him inside.

He thought her romantic interest was delusional, like she'd snap out of it and regain her senses in a sudden show of embarrassed rage. But she didn't, and if her feelings were real, maybe she never would. Should he enjoy her love? He certainly wouldn't return it, and he refused to be dishonest for her.

He remembered his father's questions: who is she to you? What did he want? What were his feelings for her? They were unfamiliar like a stranger passing in the street. He closed his eyes and tried to glimpse that stranger beneath their popped hood and low hat, and he saw admiration. Not love, not romance, but a respect for this person who diligently pursued her dreams and loved her family with fiery passion dancing so wildly it burned.

He didn't want things to change like this, but they did, now he had to react. Denying it, turning it over in his mind like an engine for days at a time got him no closer to an answer. Since their relationships began, Futaro had let others define his meaning with these five girls. To solve this problem, or whatever it may be, he had to start defining them for himself, and it would start with Nino. So what did he want from her? He didn't understand himself, close bonds were new territory for him. But he knew what he didn't want. He didn't want this distance and constant questioning. He wanted to talk to her again without shouting or fighting, and maybe this time he'd ask the right questions.

He was struck with desire. On any other night he would have ignored it, but tonight he was open to possibility. He grabbed Nino's paper and wrote an additional line. It was short, only a few words long, and had no academical purpose at all. But it felt like the most important line on the paper.

Felt. He realized he felt. Maybe he could do this after all.

It read 'I'm sorry, I want to talk to you again. Please forgive me'.

**A/N**

The Quintessential Quintuplets caught my interest because it is a very character-driven story, more than it is a romance or a harem or a drama, it's a story about people that feel distinct and memorable. In fact it's so character-oriented the rest of the universe may as well exist only for their narrative sake. The cast is incredibly small and surrounded by nameless faces and bland character models. And even some of the named characters get little development. Futaro's father is one such character, and one I've played around with to build his own background and worldview. I wanted to introduce a counterpoint to Futaro's perspective that existed outside of the quintuplets, and his Father seemed to fit well when I tested the idea. Wisdom is an excellent counter to Futaro's cold calculus. I'm not saying that Futaro's perspective is incorrect, only that I remember feeling similarly to how I portray Futaro in this story, and that was a stage in my life I had to learn my way through to become, in my view, a more complete person. Futaro's young and thinks he has the world figured out. Didn't we all. He has a lot of growing left to do, but he's smart, he'll figure it out.

Thank you everyone who's taken the time to read this story so far. In an earlier chapter I estimated this story at around 30 chapters. I'm quite confident now that it'll exceed that, and whether or not that's a positive or negative is entirely subjective. So if you can stick with me that long, I'll deliver something memorable, and if I'm lucky, even meaningful. And if you enjoyed it so far, or find something worth criticizing, please leave feedback in a review.

Chapter published April 4th, 2019.


	6. Breakdown

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 6**

**Breakdown**

_**~Nino~**_

It wasn't a dream, more of a memory. She existed in time before money and finer living, when five were similar in every way but name. The outside world was merely the canvas that they colored in five uniform tea rose strokes. The only thing capable of halting their united fellowship was their mother, who might as well have been God. Their mother said there was right and wrong, and it was so, and she enforced those rigid boundaries with an iron fist. With five clever daughters, a playpen with firm walls was her only means of control. And yet the field inside that pen was wide and endless enough for their tiny legs to traverse without ever seeing its limits. It was a happy life, one she longed to return to one day.

And yet not all was pleasant in paradise. Their God was neither omnipresent or omnipotent, and the weight of the world and her daughters strained her energy like a tick sucking the life from her veins, growing larger as she shrank smaller and smaller, until one day she just disappeared. It was a slow, enduring retreat, yet she hid it admirably behind the walls of their Eden. Yet even then, five little girls still new to the world could see something was wrong. But none of them knew what they could do. They were so small inside their little world, and if their sisters didn't know what to do, how could they, the same person, do any better?

Until one day she stepped away from her sisters. She pushed in her chair at the table and joined her mother in the kitchen as she vigorously prepared their evening meal. For a moment their mother stopped and looked at her questioningly. She, the sister who broke their delicate harmony. She looked up and announced, "I want to cook too!"

And so it was her that took the first step outside their walls. And when she looked back she saw her sisters leaping across the boundary one by one and marveling at this brave new world to explore. But they didn't follow her, instead they pursued different directions and interests until they were no longer the same. In the years that followed she tried assembling new walls to unite them, and when that failed to contain them she built another to keep others away. Still she failed, and she and her sisters drifted just a little bit further into the horizon. How long until they were out of sight?

And then the world began to shake, the ground around her crumbled and she fell into an abyss, and none of her sisters were close enough to catch her.

"Nino, wake up."

"Mmm, hmph?"

"You were asleep."

Nino blinked and sat up, "Was I?"

"You were," Futaro said.

Nino rubbed her eyes and said, "Sorry, I'll get back to it." She picked up her pencil and followed the questions until she found where she left off.

Futaro said, "Nino, what are you doing?"

"I said I'm sorry, didn't mean to fall asleep during study session. I'm okay now, let's do this."

"Nino, we're at work."

She paused, then looked up and realized she was sitting in the cake shop's employee lounge. She must've fallen asleep on break trying to finish Futaro's assignment. She checked the clock and realized she'd gone twenty minutes over her break. She said, "Oh no. Did the manager tell you to get me? He's gonna be furious."

"You don't need to worry about that."

"As if. It's the dinner rush, he's-"

"I said don't worry about it," Futaro said, leaning over her to look at her assignment. He flipped to the last page and stared, then let go and said, "The manager says you can head home early after you clean the baking equipment. Finish the rest there."

She checked the clock, it was barely past six. She had another two hours on her shift and the manager never let anyone go early on a busy night. She said, "Why would he do that, I didn't ask to go." Futaro shifted awkwardly and she realized, "What'd you tell him?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Liar. You're as bad as Yotsuba."

"I am not!"

"Close enough."

Futaro sighed and rubbed his temple, "What does it matter. Just finish up and go home already." He left before she could reply, heading to the dining area and away from any possible follow-up she might brew. He'd never been so adamant about avoiding her, what was he up to? Was this pity? Did he see her as weak? She scowled at the thought, if he knew the half of what she put up with he wouldn't dare think less of her.

She sighed and put away her assignment and wondered why Futaro bothered writing in their names this time. She returned to the kitchen and met the manager as he finished icing a vanilla cake. She said, "Excuse me, I heard that I'm to leave after cleaning the baking stuff."

The manager peaked and smiled, "Ah, yeah, Futaro told me everything earlier. Feel free to cut out early."

"Okay, thanks...what exactly did he say?"

"Probably too much," he said, bringing her closer, "I know it feels like your world will never be the same, but cheer up, you still have plenty of time to find someone who'll love you again."

Ah, so that's what he said. Clever, tactless and rude all at the same time. Classic Futaro. Prick.

She said, "Oh, well, thank you for time to recover from my rejection."

"No worries, sad workers bake sad cakes, can't have you ruining our reputation."

Nino stormed to the sink and quickly scrubbed the mixers clean and the bowls to a shine, then grabbed her things and headed for the door. It felt strange to leave the shop while the sun lingered in the sky to greet her. The shop would be experiencing its evening rush soon, a flood of hungry after-dinner guests and office workers seeking their guilty pleasure after their daily slog.

Not that she had much relief of her own to look forward to, she had chores, homework and Futaro's assignment to complete before she could dream of rest. But at least she had time to worry about all that now, once she dealt with whatever chaos her sisters were brewing like witches over a cauldron of ill intent.

She battled a yawn walking upstairs. Just one more day, she told herself, make it through that and you'll have the whole weekend to make up lost hours. She could handle a little exhaustion until then.

She opened the door and Ichika greeted her, "Nino! You're home early."

"If you're worried about rent, I have enough hours to cover my share."

"Oh it's not that, I'm just so glad to see you!"

"Uh-huh. What is it?"

"...Itsuki's trying to cook." This was code-speak for 'save us'.

As with Miku and Yotsuba, Itsuki had a fatal flaw to her cooking that was all her own. Like Yotsuba it was not quality, Itsuki's food could rival hers with enough time to prep. But that was the problem: time. A good kitchen ran on efficiency. Itsuki's cooking was a labor in certainty as she meticulously checked every step of the process like she were turning lead into gold one atom at a time. It'd be hours and five grumbling bellies before she actually plated anything.

Nino stepped into the kitchen and tapped Itsuki's shoulders, "What're you making?"

"Fried rice," she said. Nino noted she had yet to start the rice cooker.

She said, "Mind if I take over? I'm in a cooking mood." She had to phrase it this way. If she were honest and told her she couldn't stand by watching Itsuki drag her ass in the kitchen, it'd put Itsuki's pride on the line and she'd never send her away.

Itsuki said, "It's fine, I found an interesting recipe I want to try."

"Itsuki," Nino continued, "I'm in a cooking mood."

And that was it. This was Nino's territory and she reigned supreme, when she put her foot down, it stayed there. Itsuki resigned and handed over the apron. Nino donned it and got to work chopping, caramelizing, mixing, heating and serving.

Truth be told she'd prefer it if someone else had done the cooking tonight just so she could use the time to finish the rest of her housework. But this was her role, the homemaker of the Nakano household, and she kept a house that her sisters wanted to come home to every day. Coming home to her.

Dinner was served with little fanfare. Itsuki gathered their waters and napkins as Miku helped carry plates laden with steaming fried rice to the table. The five gathered around the table and gave their thanks before digging in. Nino received no spoken thanks for her deed, and she didn't need it. In fact she felt renewed vigor inside her at having provided for her sisters, she took pride in her coveted duty.

Yotsuba said, "Ichika, your movie premiers next week, doesn't it?"

"That's right, next Wednesday."

"Wow! It's gonna be a blast!"

Itsuki asked, "So we won't be seeing you that night with everything going on, will we?"

"You can, if you turn to the right channel."

"Our cable package is too small," Miku said.

"Not for much longer if this movie picks up."

Nino asked, "Oh? So you're getting a percentage?"

"A small one, nothing compared to the leads."

Itsuki said, "But this might be it for you, there's a lot of buzz around it."

"I know," she said, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of fancy tickets, souvenirs for the premiere, "I'm sorry, but I was only able to get one extra ticket to the premiere. Looks like I can't take everyone."

Yotsuba said, "That's alright! It's up to you, after all. We'll watch it together once it's out."

Miku's gaze drifted to her meal, "So who will you bring?"

Ichika sighed, "I haven't asked yet, but I have someone in mind. Sorry, Miku."

Nino caught the look in her eye, a mischievous glint like hellfire catching the devil's pitchfork. She wanted to play the dangerous game. How could she even think of asking him away for a night when he was under enough stress as it was? But she hadn't seen what she did, she caught him with his guard down and his exhaustion in full view. So she fumed, knowing that she would stay back while Ichika tried pressing her claim.

Miku said, "I'd decline anyway. Futaro and I are going to the library that night."

Ichika, you are a marvelous actress, and so quick on your feet! Nino only caught the slightest twinge of irritation rush through her face like a lightning strike, she covered it so well she almost looked happy for Miku. She said, "Oh, how nice for you. You two."

Itsuki glanced at Nino and in a rare case of sister telepathy they both agreed that this was a powder keg waiting to go off. Nino shrugged as if saying she told her so. Not that Nino wasn't a third of the gunpowder, or even the spark. She was so taken by Miku's brilliant display that it was only a minute later that she asked herself if Miku wasn't kidding. Had this all been a move to keep Ichika in check, or were they really going to read books for an evening? Just the two of them, all alone. She fumed that it better be a lie.

Dinner ended without further event and they moved onto their assignments. All their teachers were going strictly by the books made to prepare their darling pupils for the mock exams. Their math teacher had taken to stomping his foot if any piece of information was, ahem, 'likely to be utilized in the coming month'.

An hour was all it took working together and the sisters moved onto Futaro's assignment. He must have read ahead, it was clearly made to reinforce what they covered in lecture and in the homework. Trust the human database to tailor something so appropriate as a photo to a fitting frame. Futaro's method of teaching was walking the sisters up to the edge of a cliff and pushing them into the ocean, then shouting the basics of the doggy paddle as they tried not to drown. It was cruel. It was merciless. It was effective. Working on regular assignments was like paddling in the shallow end of the pool compared to the Challenger Deep of Futaro's work. They once challenged Futaro on the difficulty curve of his assignments, he looked confused and said he thought it was easy. Of course he does, he's more calculator than man.

It was nearly nine when they reached the end of it. Nino flipped to the last page and found seven questions connected to a reading passage. She blinked when the lines began to blur and multiply. She wiped the haze from her eyes and read the passage before answering as best she could, feeling more confidant than six months ago, she noted. She reached the final question, blinked when it had nothing to do with the passage, and read it over again.

'I'm sorry, I want to talk to you again. Please forgive me'.

"Miku, can I see your paper?" Nino asked. Miku handed it over and Nino examined the last page by pretending to compare answers. That last question wasn't here. She glanced sideways to Itsuki's and found it absent again.

Futaro, you're an idiot who can only communicate through studies! How many chances had he had today to tell her the same thing? Was he afraid of talking to her in person? Maybe, he had avoided her after her confession like she was one of his family's debtors. He wasn't a person to take a challenge standing tall, he'd rather squat over a desk and run it over with a mental rolling pin until he solved it or ran out of pencil lead, whichever came first.

But that was Futaro, wasn't it? And as paltry as it may be to her, he did take the first, tepid step. This was his effort at making things better. He always did his best the only way he knew how. So she answered, wearing a small smile as she wrote,

'Me too. I forgive you.'

She knew she should have ended it there, but her heart was still unpleasant with the feeling of Miku meeting Futaro alone. It roared and demanded to be heard again, released from the cage she fashioned for it. Her heart shifted the blood coursing through her hand in a spell, flowing into five extra words,

'And I still love you.'

She covered the last page and slid them forward before reaching for the ceiling in a long, back-arcing stretch that was like an inquisition rooting the tension from her body and casting it into the deepest dungeon. You better appreciate this, Futaro, she thought. She'd be watching him check her work, he'd better acknowledge her.

One by one the sisters finished their work and reclaimed their evening. Nino enjoyed a half hour TV program with her sisters, a recording from earlier in the day. It had become a practice of patience to save their entertainment for after their schoolwork, a proposition that would've been crucified six months prior. How much they've changed. A half hour of their favorite soap opera should've been enough to settle her nerves for the night. But her eyes staggered to Miku's lackadaisical expression and she wondered if she'd been telling the truth. Was there more going on than she thought? Had someone moved ahead of her already? And if so, was Futaro only playing with her? Would he laugh when he saw her answer? She flushed with embarrassed irritation, hiding it in her hands.

The show ended and her sisters began rotating through the bath. She'd be the last, as was expected. She had her own evening routine to finish. She brought out the vacuum and cleaned the floors, then she scrubbed all her cooking ware from their evening meal. And just as she was finished Itsuki decided she wanted an evening snack. Nino sighed and waited for her to finish the bowl. Itsuki insisted she could handle it and Nino refused like always. She was gloved up, this was her duty.

Her sisters started turning in for the night when she began prepping tomorrow's lunch boxes. It was a new entry to her chore list, one dictated by economic necessity. It used to be an afterthought how they'd purchase meals in the cafeteria, she'd never prepared lunch boxes before. But as their budget slimmed and the impact of their daily meals burned holes in their wallets, she opted to pack lunches for her sisters. As part of their apartment warming, she'd insisted on buying lunch boxes for their future meals. They each had a color: red for her, pink for Ichika, blue for Miku, yellow for Yotsuba, and green for Itsuki. Tonight she decided a simple arrangement of rice, vegetables and a small portion of meat was easy enough to prepare. It added up to thousands of saved yen a week. Her bracelet was reward for their lunchtime frugality.

She heated oil in the skillet while she breaded thin slices of pork, then dipped them into hot oil to fry. As she waited for them to cook she loaded their lunch boxes with rice and vegetables. To think their lives would change so drastically from their decision to leave. If she'd known every little impact their choice would lead to, including these late nights, would she still have elected to do it? Her sisters, maybe, but they didn't have the burden of housework like her. And she'd grown to love their bountiful lifestyles, never having to check her wallet and count the bills. It was a liberty she missed. Her wallet was so light and felt so heavy.

Maybe she should open her chores up to her sisters. Ichika had done the same when she demanded they all search for work and they were getting by just the same. But she rejected the thought outright after briefly entertaining it, like a king tossing out a guest of honor the moment he walked through the door. It was her place to provide the home that brought her family together. Without that, what would keep them from drifting even further apart? She couldn't trust them with that level of responsibility, it had to be her.

And then she smelled it, the smell of burning, neglect and failure. She turned and found the pork overcooking in the oil.

"No! No no no!" She cried as she took it off the heat. The oil danced like fireworks, drops leaped out and attacked her hand. She yelped and cursed, shaking her hands and rushing them under the cold tap. And all the while the pork kept burning. By the time her hands were treated the pork was beyond saving.

She cursed herself. First rule of cooking was safety, the second was never take your attention away from anything on fire. That little piglet died for their meal, its sacrifice was in vain now. And that wasn't even considering the wasted money, meat wasn't cheap, and she'd wasted it. It was all her fault, when did she start making such avoidable mistakes?

She bagged up the burnt meat and threw it in the garbage. She would have gone right back to cooking, but the smell of burnt meat irked her, like meeting your ex-lover with his new bride on his arm; especially if it was your sister, she mused. She took the trash bag and tied it tight, then put on her shoes and stormed into the cold to throw it in the dumpster. It must have rained between her return and now because the dirt she walked through was muddy and sucked at her feet as she walked. No matter, she was a woman on a warpath. She threw the evidence of her inattentiveness into the trash like lobbing a hot grenade into an enemy foxhole and beat a hasty retreat to the comfort of home.

When she returned she found she'd lost her appetite for cooking. She'd give it another go later, for now she wanted to attack something and beat it into submission to restore her pride. She took her cleaning carrier and entered the unholiest of hells: the bathroom.

She sprinkled cleaner into the toilet bowl, then took the toilet wand and scrubbed like she were a fencer seeking first blood of the torso. She poured all of her frustration into her arm, as if it would enter the bristles and fuel their drive to attack every last remnant of waste. She thought of Futaro and his oblivious insensitivity. Who was she? Why couldn't he just tell? Did it not matter to him at all? She got the damn earrings to broadcast it like twin lighthouses on a stormy cliff, but why couldn't he just know!?

And then she pictured him with Miku at the library, the pair nestled into a love seat reading their selections. And slowly, like a leaf falling in autumn, Miku's head dipped onto his shoulder. He didn't flinch.

Would Futaro be able to tell if it were Miku?

She roared in frustration and drained the toilet, the white flag of surrender. Another effort wasted, nothing had changed or improved. She patted the wand and restored it to its holster. Next she would attack the sink. She turned-

There was mud on the floor. Footsteps leading right to her. She gasped as she realized she'd forgotten to take off her shoes at the entrance. What had she done? Mud at the entryway, mud in the hall, mud in the kitchen and mud here too! How could she be so stupid? Again!?

In a rage that would make a lion tremble she tore off the offending footwear and hurled them at the door. They rang like an intruding guest, once, twice, each time leaving two muddy marks on the white door before tumbling lamely to the floor.

In the silence that followed anything could have happened. Her sisters, if only one was light enough asleep, could have risen from slumber to investigate and saved her from her fears. She could offer Nino the words she needed to hear and give her comfort from her mistakes that echoed into failure. But that didn't happen. Nino was left alone with a muddied floor, burnt meat and a mess she could not clean. And in that mess she saw the inevitability of her failure.

She could never recreate their childhood Eden. She could never create a home her sisters would always call their own. One by one they would leave, drifting beyond her sight like ships sailing for uncharted lands. And she would remain, alone, motherless, sisterless. Their paradise was forever lost, and all her clawing to get it back just left scars.

Nino fell to the floor she could never polish to a shine, leaned against the tub covered with grime that she could never wipe free, and curled into a ball to hide from despair. But it found her all the same, as it always does, for despair is a hunter. One can hide from it, one may outrun it for a time, but it will always find its mark. And as it claimed her she wept silently for all she knew was lost, for the strength she never had to fight it, and for the loneliness that seemed all she would know.

Nino was falling, falling, falling further into that abyss.

**A/N**

Perhaps I should take a moment to discuss my purpose in writing. I'm a regular lurker on this story's subreddit and am familiar with the factions regarding the sisters. I myself favor Nino, though nowhere near as some in the Nino Gang seem to. My reason for writing this romance isn't because I want to see her with Futaro. I like the idea, but it isn't my primary reason. Allow me to explain.

George R. R. Martin said that the only story worth telling is the human heart at war with itself. I firmly agree with this sentiment, and so when I write, I try to write that conflict at its core. I believe at this point, both Futaro's and Nino's personal conflicts are understandable to readers, and note that they are not directly tied with romance. Each person brings to a relationship their own burdens and understandings, and that can fuel or divide a couple; it can break them or make them grow stronger. That's what this story is about. That's what I was struck by one night as I pondered the plot, and found that I had a story to tell.

So tell it I shall. To the end if I can. And the response I've received has proven to me that it's been worth putting these thoughts to word. I'm pleased that you've found something worthwhile in this story, and hope that you will continue to do so. Please review and tell me what I'm doing right and what I need to improve, and I'll take that and make this story as polished and meaningful as I can.

Chapter published April 11th, 2019.


	7. Breakthrough

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 7**

**Breakthrough**

_**~Futaro~**_

He was going the wrong way. The road home from the cake shop was two blocks west, five blocks north and a lock and key away. Instead he turned east and followed the river north until he reached a familiar destination. Each step was the promise of another finding his way back to his futon. Each step was another moment spent not studying, another moment not sleeping. And yet he persisted, something had become more important.

Those five would be finished with his assignment at this hour, meaning Nino has seen his question. A patient man would wait to tomorrow to check their answers. In any other week, Futaro would have been that paragon. But not this one, and not tonight. Tonight he would have his answer and put everything to rest. The knowing will set his mind free.

He stopped outside their home and saw the incandescent window on the second story. Only one of the girls would be up at this hour, he had no doubt who. What would she say when she answered the door? He was through guessing, the woman was his game of chance where the odds were never in his favor. But he knew his every action like he were a chess Grandmaster arranging his pieces twelve steps ahead. All he had to do was get himself inside, ignoring her insinuations as needed, and find her paper. He'd see her answer before the night was done, that was all that mattered. Then things could settle; manageable or not, they would settle. He'd deal with whatever was left.

His plan was thrown out the metaphorical window when he found the door open. Not like the gates of Troy after Odysseus's deception, but just barely shy of its lock jamb after someone sloppily pulled it shut without checking for a click. The gentlest pull would set it free.

He knocked softly enough to keep the door in place. No response. He gently grasped the handle and opened the door so a sliver of light shone through like the heavens after a storm. He called, "Hello? Anyone there?" The soft, warm air flowing through the crack was inviting and empty of sound.

Futaro knew the home was a sacred place, especially for these five, and moreso for Nino. His presence inside was a hard-won accomplishment, and that was with an invitation. To enter unannounced was asking for fury. On any other night he might have walked away, respecting their established boundaries. Tonight he was desperate, and something didn't fit right with him. Here was another puzzle he wanted to solve.

He peeked inside, "It's me, ah, the door was open, I'm coming in." He stepped into the entryway and removed his shoes. Here he spotted his second clue: the trail of muddy steps passing the single step into the hall and heading for the kitchen, and doubling back to the bathroom. Futaro took off his shoes and carefully avoided the mud by hugging the wall. Just before the bathroom he spotted clue number three: dirty dishes in the kitchen. Nino would never leave the kitchen in such a state, meaning she hasn't turned in yet.

Clue one: door, clue two: mud, clue three: dishes. There were simple explanations for these anomalies and a few extreme ones. Futaro's mind naturally jumped to the most implausible and disturbing of them. It would only last an instant before rational thought deafened his eagerness, but in that moment he was filled with a need to act, and the courage to do it. He didn't think, his body moved to the bathroom like a flash of lightning in the night.

"Nino, are you-!" He stopped and the moment died.

Nino was curled in a ball against the tub. Two ladies flats, coated with mud, were lying between them. All urgency died like someone casually flicked its switch. Futaro sighed, then he wondered how she hadn't heard him. She must be asleep. Why was she sleeping like she was trapped in a box?

He knelt in front of her and gently shook her shoulder and wondered how furious she'd be with him for entering uninvited. She loved him, but he was sure she loved her home more. He said, "Nino, wake up."

He expected her head to shoot up like a rocket, blink away her confusion, and scowl at his disturbance. Instead she shrank further into herself, tightening like a can imploding in the deepest crevice in the ocean. She held herself like she wanted to crush herself smaller, so small that she might disappear.

"Nino?" Futaro asked, leaning down to see her face between her knees. Her eyes were open and nothing like the girl he remembered, they were puffy and red as if from heavy blows, her makeup scarred by tears that had run dry. And within their drained basin he saw those dark circles closing in around her eyes like a castle under siege, a castle who's queen was ready to submit. Nino, confident and indominable, had once again hopped the spectrum and landed in defeat and despair.

And Futaro suddenly felt insignificant and out of place. He sat beside her and saw the door with two muddy marks, the last clue he needed to fit everything into place. Nino's anguish was like a fog that he breathed, seeping through his lungs into himself. He tried to say something, anything, as if the right words were a magic spell to banish misery, a medicine to purge the body of sorrow. He hearkened back to every fact from every book he's ever read for some answer to the problem he saw. He found nothing, all his dedicated studies gave him nothing here. And for the first time he wished he was more like his father. He would know what to say, what to do to catch her from her sorrow. And if his father couldn't, he would at least do something. But not him. He didn't know.

He glanced at Nino who still refused to move anywhere but into herself. He wondered if she even knew he was here, or if she was shrouded in a veil that shielded her from the world. And suddenly he was angry at her silence. Did she think staying quiet would solve her problems? If only she said something, if she gave him a hint, he could figure this out. He was running on insufficient data! He could solve this if she gave him the rest.

As the thoughts passed, he saw them for what they were and cursed himself. What the hell was he doing? He had the equation, how to draw Nino out of her despair. But if he started blaming the person he was trying to help, wouldn't he only make it worse, like burning down the forest to remove invasive fungi? Maybe his father was right and he'd never face an equation harder to solve than this. But was this even solvable?

But he wanted to do something to make things better. Maybe it wouldn't bring her fully back into the world, but anything was better than nothing, right? He followed the dry trail of tears that looked to have stopped only because the well ran dry.

There. A problem he could solve.

"Stay here, I'll get you some water," he said, standing up with new purpose. He checked Nino as he left, if she knew he was there, she wasn't showing it. She was at woman frozen in time, a slave to whatever fear gripped her mind like a neck in the noose.

Fetching water. A task so simple a child could do it. Somehow it took Futaro a very long time. Not because he didn't know where the glasses were, he did, and he knew where to fetch it, from the filtered tank in the fridge. It was almost empty, the water was a thin surface no taller than a marble. He turned the tab and watched the last of the purified water drain into the glass. He emptied it until there as nothing left. Like Nino.

He'd never noticed, not until the very end. All the signs, her exhaustion, fatigue, the pressures, he missed them all. All he saw was the woman dancing illusion into his life, he tried grabbing her to hold her still, to understand her. And he still missed all of this. He failed. Worse, how much of her pressure was from him? And then he wondered, was this how Nino felt when she saw him that night almost a week ago? Nothing changed, they only switched places.

Futaro had opened the door to his heart just a crack to see what it meant to feel again. He'd felt mostly impatience, anger, and frustration; he was ready to call his little test a failure. But now he felt something new, something he hadn't felt fully in years: shame. Because if even a part of her misery was because of him, maybe even the part that toppled her into depression, he was responsible. Was this how she felt the night of her promise? Responsible?

Futaro almost snapped his heart closed that moment, this confusion he felt was so many feelings swimming in his chest like fish caught in a net. He thought it was a burden, not fuel. But something greater, a memory perhaps, won out as that pressure beat in tune with his heart. This swell of fresh emotion congealed into a desire to do something, however small, to make things better. It was the will to act, and to help. And in this feeling, he realized he'd come closer to understanding Nino than ever before.

So he let his feelings control him and bring him closer to his answer. He felt that amalgamation burning in his chest, and from there flooding his veins with every heartbeat, filling him with a second wind. He took the water filter from the fridge and refilled it in the sink. His arms groaned under the weight as he returned it to the fridge, but they'd have clean water in the morning. One less weight for Nino to lift. Then he grabbed an armful of rags from under the sink and wiped up the mud at the entrance, the hallway, and from the kitchen leading to the bathroom. He took away the mark of her mistake so she wouldn't have to face it again.

He took her water and another handful of rags into the bathroom. Nino still hadn't moved, if anything she looked smaller like she was fading into the distance. He knelt beside her and took her hand, it came with him lifeless as a corpse, he set the water on the floor and wrapped her hand around it. He wondered if the cold made her feel anything, or if she was still trapped in her mind as a spirit on another plane. He didn't wait for her to respond, he hoped she'd wake up on her own. He took the rags and turned to clean the door.

"Wait!"

Nino burst from her spot by the tub and was on him in an instant, grabbing the rags and pushing him aside. "I'll do it."

"Nino, you-"

"I," she started, then breathed, "I'm doing it. It's my job."

Nino clenched a rag and ripped it over the door as if to bore a hole through it. She scrubbed the door clear of drying mud and moved onto the floor, working her way back to the toilet and tub. All the time she kept her head down, her face almost pressed to her work. Her face was hidden in a veil of hair. Futaro realized she wasn't doing this in focus, but so he wouldn't see her. For when he saw her eyes through her shifting locks she saw the emptiness in them, the hopeless desperation that fixing this would fix everything else with it, but knowing deep down that it didn't matter anymore. She saw this inescapable truth she could no longer ignore.

She gathered the rags and opened the door, pausing when she saw the clean floors. Futaro said, "I already cleaned there." Nino's shoulders shifted in barely controlled breaths. Someone had seen her private shame and she could never deny its existence again. Futaro knew it being him only made it worse. Nino wiped the sweat forming at her brow, then stormed to the washing machine and threw the dirty rags inside like a pitcher's fastball.

As she worked Futaro checked the water in the bath. It was well below lukewarm. The rushing inside his chest pumped through his arms and made him move. He drained half the tub and ran the hot water to restore its temperature. Nino asked from the hall, "What are you doing?"

"Drawing a warm bath."

"Why?"

"You're sweaty, you need to get ready for bed."

"I'm not done yet."

No, he saw the dishes and the cleaning caddy. So much left to do. But not tonight. He said, "Yes, you are."

"Why are you even here? Just go." She said with as much venom as she could muster to push him away, which wasn't much, her fangs were dry as her eyes. Her emptiness made the pressure inside him swell like a river frothing as the winter snow began to melt.

He stepped outside as Nino set the washer. She tried to storm past him with her head down like a charging bull, but Futaro caught her shoulders. "Look at me," he said slowly. She resisted, but he made her look. And when their eyes met she tried, oh she tried to be strong. Her expression was shattered glass in the light.

Futaro said, "Go. I'll be outside."

Whether she agreed with him or the fuel to her fire was merely spent, she slowly entered the bathroom like a prisoner to her cell. Futaro settled beside the door. He left it open a crack in case he heard something strange. He didn't think Nino would do anything rash, but he'd read stories of people literally drowning their despair to quell it, and his own fear insisted he be aware of her. He heard the water shift as she entered like the soft opening to an orchestra.

Minutes passed in silence. Futaro could have used this time for analysis, to assemble these new pieces into a more cohesive whole. But his mind was empty, almost zen as he waited for the next stage. He sat at the door like a sentry, a silent guardian. Nino would like that analogy.

"Futaro?"

He shifted, "What?"

"Are you doing anything Wednesday?"

"Where did that come from?"

"I'm not asking you out. I just want to know if you're doing anything with anyone."

"Aside from study hall, no, no plans. Why?"

"No reason." Her voice betrayed her, but hid the details. At least she sounded better, he thought.

Soaking with her thoughts must have been a balm for Nino. When she emerged in her pajamas she almost looked like her old self. Her eyes were alive as if someone added fresh kindling to her embers, but those black crescent moons still held up her eyes like infants in cradles. She moved for the piles of dirty dishes.

"No. Bed." Futaro was firm as an iceberg, he impressed himself.

Nino scowled, "You're not the boss here."

"But I am your tutor, and I want you in top shape tomorrow. Go. I'll see myself out." He felt like such a parent. He wondered if he'd make a good one. A good strict father, the opposite of their grandfather.

Nino narrowed her eyes in defiance, but it was meager compared to the woman in her prime. And she was ashamed at being seen at her most vulnerable. It was worse than that time with the towel, this was more intimate, her deepest failings on open display. She relented and made for the bedroom, glaring at him one final time before she closed the door, as if he was a snitch ratting her out to the cops. Futaro let himself out and pressed the lock bulb before shutting the door. And as he did he felt the swelling in his chest unclench like gloved hands releasing his windpipe.

He started for home and wondered if they had any of Raiha's leftovers in the fridge. From fridges he thought of food, from food to dirty dishes, from dirty dishes to Nino, her face shifted into an absence of hope inside eyes so far away. And suddenly he wasn't heading home anymore. The swelling in his chest that carried his hands to clean breathed again and flushed into his legs Those feelings his father said were crushed as the soles of his feet now carried him away.

He caught the bus, his mind wandered into empty eyes and tried to find traces of where her fire had gone. He took it two stops, five less than before, then got out and transferred to another line, taking it three stops further. He got off at a familiar bus stop. It looked lonely in the streetlights, its open bench welcoming his company.

He blinked as if waking from a dream. Why had he come here? He tried to recall the train of thought, but he was searching for something that didn't exist, logic hadn't guided his footsteps. He sighed and sat on the bench, then frowned as he realized he needed to cross the street to get home. Double bus fare for nothing. Not that it mattered, the next bus wouldn't be here for a while. Time to think if he could manage it. Only he didn't know where to start.

When had his life become a roller coaster? Had everything before been the slow ascent to the top, only to drop into a wild flurry of curves and whiplash? He bet he couldn't find another tutor dealing with anything of his magnitude, it was like comparing a hike in the woods to climbing K2. What would he give to go back to a simple life with simple worries. Only, that wasn't right.

How many chances did he have to walk away? Too many to count. How many had he taken? Exactly one. And after months of scheming, bargaining and compromising to bring them to the table, they sacrificed a lifestyle to keep him there. And he couldn't reject them, even when money was taken out of the equation, he stayed. Because in spite of all the headaches and frustration, he found a place where he was relied on, where he was important. And these five had become important to him too. Ichika's developing career while bettering herself was important to him. Miku's growing love of history and stories was important to him. Yotsuba's slow, steady crawl from zero to one hundred was important to him. Itsuki's dream of standing in his shoes one day was important to him. And Nino.

His father's questions flashed through his mind: what is this girl to you? And what do you want her to be? Why were those questions so important, and why had his father brought him here to answer them? Because his mom had an epiphany on this very bench? Was it supposed to be a magic bench? Was here the spring feeding the roots of Yggdrasil? Did a doctor's expertise come from his scrubs, or a king's decrees from his regalia?

It was silly. And it was even sillier to think that he was in the same place as his mother all those years ago. Even if the wood was mostly the same, this were not the same space. The world endlessly revolved around the sun, which itself circled the galactic core, a community of stars endlessly drifting through the void. That point in space-time was a million light years away. What good was it to pretend this was the same spot? Why should a bit of dead wood and concrete hold any meaning?

Ah, there it is again. That cold logic that guided him like a GPS not caring there was a mountain in the way. He wanted to set it aside for a moment and ask himself, what did he want to feel? He sat on the bench and imagined himself embodying the same space as his mother with the same questions running through his mind. Could he leave here with an answer, like her?

He used to be his mother's son, before she got sick. It was only after seeing his father's strength in her illness that he began idolizing him, but before that it was her. His mother with her kindness and her loving heart that fed him and made him grow tall. He'd forgotten these things over time as new goals and desires buried them like dirt under grass. But they were still there, his foundation. He remembered, and he was still her son. So he felt her there, sitting beside him, and he asked himself, he asked her, what did this girl mean to him?

A bus came, then another, and another. The line continued to run and still he sat, wondering and wandering in place. Time seemed to stand still on that bench, as if it were holding itself back, giving him an eternity to find his answer. And there beside him was his mother, trapped in time, waiting to help her son.

One bus stopped by and opened its door to him. He ignored it like the rest, but the driver asked, "Are you getting on?"

"Not yet."

"This is the last bus tonight, kid."

"I'm not going."

"Alright, stay warm." He closed the door and drove off.

Nino Nakano. Who was she to him? He turned it over and over like a coin expecting to see a different face each time. Partner. Partner, partner partner. He kept coming back to that ubiquitous title that meant nothing. Partner in what? Was their partnership any different from her sisters? And if so, why?

And then he wondered, maybe the question was too far. Maybe he needed to go broader before he could answer it. He shortened the question: who was she?

Nino Nakano. The second daughter. Expert cook. Loving sister. Jealous sister. Romantic. Candid. Hates him. Tolerates him. Loves him.

There were no pieces he could assemble, only pictures in his memory. A thousand moments assembling into a collage of her. He picked them one by one, running them like clips of a movie. He didn't know what he was looking for, only that he would know it when he found it. He remembered her tears outside their apartment, the smile she gave him in the woods, the boldness in her eyes as she confessed, embarrassed but unashamed. There was her defiance as she firmly rejected him from their lives, the firm concentration as she scrubbed her family's dishes, her-.

Wait. Go back. He found something there.

What was special about Nino at work? It wasn't the act of cleaning, he realized, but the look in her eye, the firm concentration and total dedication to her task. That same look was everywhere, but it shone like the north star when she worked for those she loved. It mirrored his own whenever he focused on his studies. Theirs was the same passion that inspired them. And for what purpose? To create a home for the people they loved, to be needed and relied on. Except for him, it was still a dream he was only beginning to live. He studied, he tutored, he found a place to be meaningful to others in teaching. She was relied on now, and for years. She's been living his dream.

And there was his answer, and the revelation broke a dam in his heart, flooding him with mirth and warmth that was like the streetlights coming to life on the darkest night. What was this girl to him? Someone he admired, someone who proved his dream, even shared it and lived it. And suddenly that brash girl didn't seem so far away. He wanted to know why. He wanted to know her.

And then he knew her pain and understood why tonight had torn her apart like an earthquake crumbling cities. The failure to live up to that dream, it haunted him sometimes. But it was still something far away for him, for her it was real. And when faced with proof that she wasn't enough, that she could fail...when she woke up and saw those dishes uncared for, bathroom uncleaned, lunches unprepared, would she feel like a failure again?

No, she wouldn't. Not tomorrow, no, he realized as he checked his watch, not today. This time when he stood he knew where his energy came from. He checked his watch again, half past midnight. The last bus was resting in the depot somewhere in the city limits. How many kilometers was it to home, then back to the Nakano's? Seven stops, plus three more. Two stops from his place to theirs, multiply that by the average distance between stops…

He thought, screw it, and took off.

A generous observer would call his chosen method of transportation 'running', and anyone else might call it a spirited homage to the idea of running. Futaro wouldn't have cared, outside opinion never bothered him before and they wouldn't start now. He had one thing on his mind, and that thought fueled him like gravity fuels a river, giving him the strength to ignore the exhaustion that forever limited him on the track. Mind over matter, he thought proudly.

He'd never returned home so sweaty in his life. He thought of his body as a limitation, a sack of meat necessary to sustain his mind where he truly belonged. Maintaining it above the minimum was wasted mental might. Maybe he should rethink that, he felt like falling apart.

He stepped inside, Raiha and his father were fast asleep. The weights on his eyelids asked to join them, they were refused by his heart like a boss rejecting an employee's raise. He went to the bathroom and pulled out their family cleaning caddy. It had a few major brands inside, along with many homegrown solutions his family had discovered in their years living in run-down apartments. It wasn't Nino's fault she couldn't keep the place spotless, she just didn't have the right tools. Cleaning a luxury condo was nothing like cleaning a slum.

"Hey there, you're home late." he froze, then peeked out from the bathroom. His father was up, sitting on his futon between him and the door. Futaro felt like a burglar in his own home. His father gestured to the caddy and asked, "What're you doing with that?"

"This? Ah..." Futaro began, unsure what he could say, "There's a thing, with the girl, and-"

"Come back safe, grab a coat before you go." His father rolled back into bed without further comment. Futaro couldn't remember loving his father more, and for all the freedom he gave his children. He always trusted them to find their own way.

Love. True, unsolicited love. He could still feel it after all, not just out of familial obligation, but because he was human. Maybe he still had something to learn after all.

He reached into the closet for a coat, choosing the one from his school trip as soon as he saw it, and headed out the door with the caddy in hand. He couldn't run to the Nakano's with it, but he moved as a man with purpose beyond the academic. Something personal.

He had a plan, a plan involving a break in. Nothing violent, a simple picked lock would suffice. He'd never actually picked a lock in his life, but he knew the mechanics, how hard could it be? And yes, technically it was a crime, but it was nothing compared to the triple drugging he'd endured at Nino's hands, he thought as if crimes could cancel each other out. All that was thrown out the window when he saw the lights on inside their home.

How long had she waited after he left? A minute? A second? Was she an automaton that couldn't enter sleep mode until all daily tasking was fulfilled?

He left the caddy next to their door before knocking. He said, "It's me. Again."

Futaro was a man of predictions, and he considered himself more reliable than any prophet because his fortunes were based on cool, confident logic. He expected to see the same struggling, battled girl from the bathroom meekly peeking out the door. But as the door was flung open wide, the one confronting him was unquestioningly Nino, as blunt and decisive as ever. Take away those scars of exhaustion and he'd assume she was having a normal evening. Defeat was nothing more than a speed bump for her. If she tripped and fell, she might cradle her wound for a moment, but she always got back up, just like now, to get the job done. Nothing would keep her down, and she dared fate to try and stop her. Just like he did, he realized.

"What're you doing here?"

"What're you doing out of bed?"

"It's my house!"

"You think I've forgotten?"

"So what? You get lost in a circle?"

"Forgot my wallet again."

"Bull."

"Should be in the kitchen."

Nino glowered, but stepped away to check. Futaro followed her inside, removing his shoes and closing the door as she returned "It's not there."

Futaro reached into his pocket and pulled it out, "Found it."

"You liar!"

"Let's see what you've been up to," he said as he brushed past her so easily it flabbergasted her, as if it were his name on the door and not hers. Dishes were neatly scrubbed and lain out to dry, and the lunch boxes were gone, likely packed and in the fridge. Nino was pulling an all-nighter preparing for the next day, just like he'd done so many times before. How had he never realized how alike they were? Because he'd never opened himself to seeing the signs, as if he were colorblind. Well he could see them now as bright as stars over a ship in the heart of the sea. He hid his briefest smile from her. He'd show her another time.

Nino stormed in front of him to cut him off, poking his chest, "Enough of this. Fess up, what're you doing here?"

He pointed to the clock, "Pop quiz: what's wrong with this picture?"

"You're here," Nino fumed.

"And if you were in bed, I might feel guilty. Are you done?"

"That's none of your business."

"I'm making it my business."

"You don't get to do that!"

"I just did," he pointed to the bedroom, "Go."

She huffed, "No." They glared at each other, and Futaro remembered an old hyperbole about an unstoppable force and an immovable object. He decided he wasn't interested in how that one ended and changed tactics, "Fine, do what you like."

Nino almost glowed, "Good, now get-what are you doing?"

Futaro sat at the kotatsu and assembled their assignments, "Gonna get some work done."

Nino pointed to the door, "Go!" Her mind was too exhausted for complex thoughts, simple commands were all she could handle.

"No."

Nino looked as though he'd struck her. She stomped her foot in frustration and said, "What's with you!? This isn't your house, ass!"

"You opened the door for me. And it's after tutoring hours, so I'm a guest, right?"

Nino's brain was running on fumes as she tried following his logic, he could almost hear her gears grinding without oil. She said, "That…that doesn't-!"

"Face it, neither of us are giving up. So I'm keeping you company until you're done. Got it?"

Nino stared, her mouth working for an answer like a fish gasping for water. Oh how far she'd fallen in her fatigue. On any other day Nino would be dishing out a verbal whipping so harsh it broke the sound barrier. It was amazing that someone who could string together such colorful comebacks could be so bad at Japanese. But tonight her brain was crawling to each period.

Whether out of embarrassment or surrender, Nino headed to the kitchen. Futaro took one of the assignments, he'd been serious, if he was going to be here he might as well get some work done. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Nino filling up two glasses of water. Nothing unusual. Then she took out a small bottle filled with clear liquid, an eyedropper and a vial. She squeezed a stream into the vial until it was half full, then eyed it as if she didn't suck at chemistry, nodded, and poured it into one of the glasses.

Nino was worse than he imagined if she thought she was getting away with that.

She set the glasses on the kotatsu and slumped beside him, "Fine. Guest. So enjoy."

Futaro mused, "Less impressive than your last refreshment."

"Guests shouldn't complain!"

"Students should sleep. Isn't that what you decided last Friday?"

"Hypocrite."

"Do as your tutor says, not as he does." He rubbed his stomach and asked, "But do you have any snacks? I didn't eat after work."

Nino glared at her ungrateful guest, then got up to get him something. Futaro switched the glasses when her back was turned. She brought him an opened package of crackers, the quality of her catering reflecting her mood. "There, happy?"

"Indelibly. Let's drink," he said and raised his glass. Nino returned it mockingly and together they sipped their water.

How she grinned as she set her glass down, like a baleen whale gorging on its catch. "Too easy!"

"I agree," Futaro said, then got up and walked over to the cabinet. Nino's triumph turned to horror as he took the bottle from the cabinet and upended it into the sink. "Good stuff. You snatch this from your dad's office?"

"I...how-"

"We're three to one now, I'm catching up. Not that I intend to go any further."

Nino's mind was running in low gear, but still fast enough to catch his implication. She looked at her glass as a warrior stares at a knife during seppuku. "Oh, you..."

Futaro bolted over as Nino began to fall, catching her before she hit the ground. She looked at him through eyelashes fluttering like butterflies, "Fuu?"

"Goodnight, Nino."

How quickly the tables turned. Victory could have been sweet as Friday's tart, but Futaro wasn't out for vengeance. The weariness and frustration fell away from her face as she fell into forceful sleep, he hoped she slept as peacefully as she looked. He set Nino on the floor and looked around guiltily for a pillow. Not that he should feel any shame, as far as shooting from the hip goes, this plan went off rather well. He searched a nearby cabinet and found the spare blanket and pillow. He turned and saw Nino resting on the floor and Yotsuba peeking through the bedroom door in her pajamas.

Yotsuba looked from Nino, to the glasses, to him, then back to Nino, glasses, him, as if stuck in a loop. She squealed, "Tell me this isn't what it looks like."

Futaro beamed, "Yotsuba, perfect timing! Help me with this!"

Yotsuba almost shrank, "With what?"

"Get her to bed. Can you do that?"

"What? Oh, yeah, is that all?"

"Yes, then go back to bed."

"Why are you here?"

Futaro pointed at Nino, "This."

"Wha-"

"Yotsuba, there's no time to explain. Please just get her to bed. I'll take care of the rest."

No soul could ever fault Yotsuba for selfishness, if anyone in her field of view needed help, she offered her hand, her jacket, and whatever else she had if they asked. And sometimes even before they did.

She picked Nino up like a bride, or a corpse given how her arms dangled, as easily as if she were carrying a kitten. "What're you gonna do?"

"You'll see in the morning," Futaro began, then said, "Yotsuba, can you call me by my first name again?"

She cocked her head, "Futaro?"

This time he didn't feel nothing. It was something he couldn't describe. Maybe emotions were like muscles, he had to strain them to make them grow. "I like it."

Yotsuba stared, then broke into a smile as welcome as a checkered flag at the end of a race, "I'm glad."

"Goodnight Yotsuba. Take care of her, I'll handle the rest."

Yotsuba waved as she closed the bedroom door. Futaro snatched his cleaning caddy from outside and readied himself for a long night filled with chemicals and elbow grease. But before he opened the bathroom door, his eyes caught the sisters' scattered assignments on the kotatsu. Suddenly he remembered what brought him here earlier that night, before all this chaos took over: a question and an answer.

He sat and opened Nino's paper to the last page and read the final line.

'I'm sorry, I want to talk to you again. Please forgive me'.

'Me too. I forgive you. And I still love you.'

Futaro asked the question, but it was he who learned from her answer. Love may seem like a wild inferno as it first appears, but it can die just as quickly and leave only ash. Or, it can settle into a comforting pilot flame warming the soul. It endures though anger, through fights, through betrayal, it refuses to die. Such love is strong and unwavering and endures with time. This was Nino's love for him, it survived their squabbles and their differences. It wasn't going away. Futaro realized he didn't want it to.

The ice sheathing Futaro's heart cracked and a few shards fell away, letting his heart beat just a bit stronger, filling his cheeks with enough warmth to keep him comfortable through the night. It pushed the blood through his hand, reached for his red pen, and circled her answer correct.

**A/N**

The core of most modern romantic relationships is a set of shared values, something that can unite two people with common beliefs and let them work as a team through life. This is part of why, out of all the potential romantic relationships for Futaro, Nino struck me as the most likely. I won't repeat why, that's already been shown in the story, but I will add that I believe they share this most strongly over Nino's sisters. That close tie is essential to their relationship, and it's what can make them work. They may go about it differently, Futaro is colder like ice and Nino is wilder like Fire, but they are still intense in their own way.

I've been updating as regularly as I'm able for some time. A chapter a week has been manageable up to now, but that's changing. This chapter was pushing me to the end of my writing deadline and I worry its quality suffered as a result. I knew at some point I may have to reduce my publishing schedule, but I think that time is now. So starting with this chapter, I'll be updating every other Thursday for at least the next two chapters. This will give me time to pace myself better and even finish chapters early and get ahead of my schedule. If things settle down, I'll return to once a week. I'll begin posting estimated updates in the story description.

So please bear with me through this small change in output. Chapters are getting longer, and while I aim to limit them to this length, stories guide change in plans. A special thanks to everyone who has stuck with this story to now, and to those who have reviewed and shared their thoughts on my work. As a writer, those comments have been a great motivator to know others find meaning in my work. You've been generous with your opinions and those have encouraged me to continue writing. So please review if you can, and I will be back again soon.

Chapter published April 18th, 2019.


	8. Two Steps Forward

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 8**

**Two Steps Forward**

_**~Nino~**_

She looked at her reflection. Nothing strange about that, right? It was the centerpiece of her personal morning routine, everything else was either an afterthought or a sub-bullet. She always kept a pocket mirror handy in case she needed a touch up. There shouldn't be anything odd about staring at herself before breakfast, except this time her reflection came from the floor.

The floor tile was beige, it had been that color since they moved in. So how had it become white!? Not just cheap, off-white either, these things sparkled like dishes at a Michelin-star restaurant! She got on her hands and knees and took a closer look at herself. She scratched the tile as if this was only a thin layer of paint covering the ugly truth like a prison blanket. It was so clear, like her skin after a day at the spa. She could do her makeup with this floor.

Yotsuba ran her hand along the bathtub and said, "Wow, this is incredible! I never knew this place could get so shiny!"

Itsuki nodded as she lowered the toilet seat, "No kidding, it's so clean we could eat off this."

"Huh? So we're eating breakfast in here?"

"Be my guest, Yotsuba."

Miku looked at the sink and said, "You finally did it, Nino."

Yotsuba said, "Yeah, it's like a whole new bathroom. It's sparkling like the paparazzi!"

"Thanks," she said like the fraud she was. This wasn't her work and she deserved none of the credit. She'd stormed the battlements of grime and neglect and battered their defenses countless times, but they'd stood firm like the Great Wall of China against the Mongrel hordes. She'd scrubbed until her fingers reddened and her muscles pleaded for mercy and she'd barely scratched the dirty surface!

But then Futaro waltzes in one night and practically seduces the mess away like a Pied Piper of filth. How had he done it? Was all that studying actually worth something, like he concocted a secret chemical that battles grime like a glutton battles a plate of hot dogs? How else could he have done it when she'd failed so miserably? This was supposed to be her specialty! She took pride in her homemaking skills and ensured they had a damn good place to call home.

And...he'd done it better. His cleaning put her to shame. How?

"Nino," Ichika cooed from the door. She curled her finger, inviting Nino to follow. She joined her sister in the hall as she said, "Nice work, you've been busy. In more ways than one."

"What are you talking about?"

Ichika smiled sweetly and pulled out her phone, reading, "_Hey Nino, it's Kevin_."

Kevin? Where had she heard that name-oh! Oh! From the cake shop! Darn, she wished she'd been there when Ichika opened the email!

"So_ glad to meet you. I'm back in the States, but I wanted to-_"

"Your English is much better."

"Thanks, I practiced extra for this. Now, _but I wanted to tell you that I had a great time at the shop with you, and I want to keep in touch. Let me know if you ever want to come to the states sometime!_" Ichika paused, then showed her an attachment, "Here's a picture, he's not wearing a shirt. Think he wants one back?"

"Probably. Americans take their sweet time, don't they."

"Seems so, but we're missing the point. Why is this in my inbox?"

"Come on now, use your brain."

"Don't be coy, Nino."

"Fine, I gave it to him."

"Uh-huh. And why?"

"I think you have terrible taste in men, so I'm doing my part for my dear sister."

"Aw, that's sweet of you. But if you think my taste is bad, you should worry more about yourself."

"I've resigned myself to my ideal type, but it's not too late for you."

"Yeah, not gonna happen."

"I know, you made that clear when I met papa at the bell."

"Don't tell me you're still upset about that."

"I'm not, I rang it with him in the end."

The slightest twitch in Ichika's cheek was Nino's victory, and it was oh-so-satisfying, like popping your back after a nice stretch. She waltzed past her sister to the kitchen, "Hungry?"

"Starving," Ichika said merrily, she never stayed down for long. She eyed Nino carefully like a marksman and said, "I'm not giving up."

"Neither am I. Rolled omelet and sausage good for you?"

"Sounds perfect."

Nino moved into the kitchen and let the subject drop to the floor. She thought it would stay there, as if it were something she'd vacuum up later with the dirt of the day. She didn't think anything else needed to be addressed, it was a harmless prank, Ichika used to pull them all the time. As for Futaro, it was just their latest sibling squabble, they'd clear everything up once Futaro agreed to date her.

Yotsuba appeared and smelled her cooking, "Rolled omelet, my favorite!"

Miku said, "You have dozens of favorites."

"And I love them all equally."

Nino carved the rolled omelet into five parts and plated their meals. Five equal portions, just like mom used to make. Always five, never six, she realized. Her mom worked herself to the bone to keep her five daughters happy and well-fed, even if it meant skipping meals herself. She wondered what went through her mother's mind as she readied five plates while knowing none were for her. It's not as if having quintuplets was a choice, she couldn't imagine any woman setting out to carry five children at once, let alone someone without the wealth they have. Or had.

She didn't know if she could make that same sacrifice, and thankfully she never had to find out. But once, early on, when they were planning their budget, she'd wondered if they only had enough for four, would she give up her plate so quickly?

She chewed on the question with her food, realizing halfway through their meal how silly it was. There was plenty for everyone, no one was going hungry in this home.

She cleaned the dishes and got ready for school. As she put on her makeup in the mirror, which was markedly clearer than last night, she noticed the smell for the first time. Gone was the lingering musk of decay, it was banished by a new stench of industrial cleanser mixed with mild citrus. It frustrated her how easily Futaro had cleaned this mess. Had he fixed the appliances too? She wouldn't put it past him, she'd have to test them later. If they cooperated, she'd get him a medal of the Order of the Miracle Workers. Was he trying to show her up? If so, he succeeded.

She walked to school with her sisters and reminisced about the easy days with a daily chauffeur. They marched into the halls of learning that were no longer as daunting as they were six months ago. Stepping into their classroom, they saw their glorious leader at his desk and staring intently into the future-was he snoring?

Yotsuba gently rocked him, "Futaro, are you alright?"

"...Futaro?" Miku asked, looking at Yotsuba. When had she started using his first name?

Futaro's head lolled back and forth as if it was trying to keep up with his body. Yotsuba let go and he fell forward, his head following like a slingshot and slamming into his desk.

Yotsuba recoiled and screamed, "Oh my god I killed him!"

"You're being dramatic," Miku chided.

Ichika said, "I dunno, he looks-" she was interrupted by the loudest, most ear-splitting buzzsaw in the history of cutting technology. Futaro's head rolled to the side, licked its lips, and snored easier.

Nino mused, "Wow. Just, wow."

Itsuki said, "No kidding. What'd he do last night?" Nino had an idea. It hadn't been that easy after all. In an instant, all her frustration, her embarrassment at being outclassed, it didn't matter anymore.

"Look at this," someone said behind them. Takeda eyed Futaro and mused, "Studying till the last, as expected of my rival."

Nino sneered, "Go eat a dictionary."

"No can do, I'll be needing it when I begin tutoring you five."

"Plate it, carve it up and eat it bite by bite."

Takeda gave her a smile so dazzling it would be considered a safety hazard at an airport. Before he could reply, Yotsuba slapped Futaro on the back and he shot up, "Forty-two."

Ichika asked, "What, Futaro?"

"Answer. Forty-two."

"Ah...to what question?"

Futaro looked around, Nino wasn't sure he knew where he was. "...Is it important?"

Before anyone could delve into Futaro's unconscious world, their teacher arrived and demanded everyone take their seats. Now came the time for Futaro to lead the class in their morning respects. He called them to attention and instructed them to bow. He bowed low, then lower, lower...lower...until his head hit his desk and he shot back up like memory metal.

If Nino was asked to describe Futaro that day, she'd say Miku's cooking. If his vitality were a health bar, it'd be closer to her test average than his, and maybe even below that. If Death were to mythically manifest in front of the class to take one of them into the next life, it'd be-okay, point made. She wasn't sure if he belonged in a bed or a casket, he looked like he had one leg in both and was deciding where to commit.

So much for laying off him to reduce his stress. He looked worse than ever. Had he even slept last night? She admitted he hid it well during class, maybe their routine set his limited mind on autopilot through the end of the lessons. But on any other day the first hand ready to answer a question was Futaro's. Today, his hand didn't leave his desk once. Even Tadeka was looking at him strangely, as if he was disappointed he wasn't getting a challenge.

His first and only burst of energy came with the lunch bell. He stormed out of the class as if he guzzled the last fuel in his tank. Nino didn't spot him in the cafeteria with his barbeque-less barbeque combo. Lunch was one of his favorite times of the day, it was a cheap meal and self-study time, two of his favorite things. Did he pass out on the way?

The five sat and opened their lunch boxes, her handiwork from the night before after her first disastrous attempt. She might have stumbled, but she stuck the landing for a near perfect score. Her sisters would eat without comment, and she expected none. Once again, this was her place.

Itsuki sighed as she opened her lunch, "Finally, sweet relief."

Nino grinned, "Don't tell me the would-be teacher can't stand the classroom."

"My stomach's been grumpy since second period, I need this."

Yotsuba said, "I can't believe it, I couldn't focus at all today."

Ichika quipped, "And that's abnormal...how?"

Yotsuba shrank, "Haha, got me there."

Nino said, "No, I'm right there with you. I need the weekend."

Miku swallowed and said, "Don't forget, Futaro said he'll have extra remedial work for us on Saturday."

Itsuki said, "I dunno about that. Did you see him today? I was this close to taking him to the nurse."

Ichika said, "He didn't look sick, just exhausted. Like, I've never seen anyone that tired, even on night shoots."

Nino said knowingly, "He probably didn't sleep, doing something stupid." She missed Yotsuba's sudden glance.

Miku said, "I wonder what kept him up so late."

Yotsuba fidgeted, she didn't mean to draw attention to herself, but she was a woman of energy, pure and barely contained and always searching for an outlet. So the moment a gap appeared, it burst forth in uncontrolled action as loud as a steaming kettle, or a popped balloon.

Ichika pried, "Yotsuba, you know something about this?"

Yotsuba shot up as stiff as a board, "Who, Futaro? Nope! Not a thing!"

Nino rolled her eyes, "And the award for worst liar in the history of mankind goes to..." she froze. What did Yotsuba know? And how?

Ichika said, "Come on, spill the beans."

Miku eyed Yotsuba carefully, "I'd like to know, too."

Yotsuba waved them away like a windmill, "I'm serious, it's nothing!"

Itsuki sighed, "Just get it over with, you know they won't stop."

Yotsuba scanned each of her sisters searching for support and found none, she was trapped like a puppy in a snare. She sank, "Alright...well, it's not what you think."

Miku said, "With Futaro?"

Yotsuba pulled a note out of her pocket, "This was in my desk this morning. I forgot about it until now."

Itsuki lit up, "Oh my god, is that a love letter!?"

Nino exclaimed, "It looks like one!"

Yotsuba leaned away, "I don't know, I haven't opened it. See-"

Ichika leaned in, "No way! Who's it from? Come on, you gotta tell us!"

"It's not for me. I, well, I think someone got us confused," she showed them the name on the front. Nino. No hearts or flowers or color of any kind. Just Nino.

This wasn't her first time seeing her name on an anonymous letter. The five of them had been well received at their former high school and each garnered their share of attention. And she, being the most outgoing of the five, was the first to receive a love letter. It had been sitting in her locker, squeezed through the envelope-sized slot that some designer must have crafted intentionally to fuel high school romance. The words had been sweet as your average high school boy could arrange, which wasn't saying much. This boy in particular was a year above her, a member of the baseball team with a reputation for masterful free throws and locker room shenanigans.

She might have considered him if he hadn't thought she was an idiot. See, it was common knowledge that their grades were universally pathetic. That never bothered her and she never let it define her. And being the social butterfly she was, she couldn't help but overhear how this particular young man once said he thought the stupid ones were the easiest to...well, that last bit won't bear repeating. Needless to say she told him off in a very public, and very humiliating setting that knocked him right off his high horse into the muck.

She must have scared any other would-be-suitors off because she never got another letter, save one. But that one was an accident, it was addressed to Miku. Nino had thrown it in an incinerator. If the guy couldn't even tell his crush apart, he wasn't worthy of her sister.

So that would make this letter number three, and the handwriting gave away the writer in an furious instant. She snatched it from Yotsuba before the others could catch the same clue and opened it in front of her, denying her sisters' attempts to pry it away.

'Nino, meet me on the roof at lunch. Let's talk again. Futaro.'

"I gotta go," she said before her sisters could bombard her with demands. She closed her lunchbox and slipped into her cardigan.

Ichika grinned, "Your taste in guys changing?"

"None of your business," Nino said before storming off.

"Sorry I forgot!" Yotsuba shouted as she walked out of earshot.

These old schoolhouses were built for maximum efficiency, a utilitarian's architectural wet dream. So why were the rooftops so open and liberated? Who knows, who cares, it was a small slice of freedom from teachers and the stresses of academics in a busy day. Normally students would be crowded along the rails enjoying the sunshine. Only today there were no people because there was no sunshine. Plenty of rain, though.

She cursed and took out her umbrella. She stormed out and scanned the rooftop. Not a soul in sight. Crap, had he given up when she didn't come here immediately? It was his own fault for putting the note in the wrong desk!

She turned to leave, but then she noticed legs sticking out from beside the entrance. She rounded the corner and found Futaro sitting against the wall, his head rolled onto his chest in deep slumber. The wall just barely shielded him from the rain, but not enough to keep him completely dry. Great planning there, genius.

Nino frowned and squatted next to him, refusing to let her skirt touch the wet ground. She tried to cover both of them with her umbrella, but it was small, the kind that would fit comfortably in her purse. She scooted closer to Futaro until their shoulders touched and tried again, satisfied when they were both safely covered.

She shoved him firmly enough to jiggle him but not enough to knock him over, "Wake up."

Futaro's head shot up and hit the wall. He moaned and rubbed his head, then turned to her, narrowing his eyes, "You're late."

"You put the note in the wrong desk, smart guy."

"I did not."

"Did too."

"I know I gave it to you."

"So why was it in Yotsuba's desk? Was it for her? Wait, who am I?"

Futaro was less certain as he checked her ears, "Nino?"

"Bingo. So again, why was it in Yotsuba's desk?"

Futaro scowled, "Okay, I may have messed up."

"Not may. You did. Twice. Ever hear of a weather forecast?"

"My phone doesn't have data."

"You're a clever guy. Just not today."

Futaro glared at her, but looked away and chastised himself, "Fine. My bad."

Nino leaned in, "So how'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"You know what. Our bathroom looks like it belongs in a suite."

Futaro laughed haughtily, "You may have no trouble keeping your old high-rise clean, but nobody knows how to clean a dump like the destitute!"

"You're too proud of that."

"Tell me again how nice your place looks."

"You want a thank you?"

"No, just a little acknowledgment."

Nino scowled and turned away, it hurt her pride to say this, "Fine. It looks nice and I like it. Good work."

Futaro sighed with the praise, "Ah, it was-"

"But I won't forgive you for drugging me."

Futaro went rigid, "What?"

"I wonder what they'll say when they find out you drug helpless girls."

"Don't. You. Start."

"I still don't know how I got to bed-"

"No! You have no ground to stand on here!"

"I hope we have a random drug test today, I'd love to explain how that got in my system!"

"You! You...oh forget it," Futaro sighed and slumped like a wilting flower.

Nino looked him over cautiously, maybe she'd been too harsh. He looked ready to fall over and never get up again. "What time did you get to bed?"

"I'll tell you when I do."

"You haven't slept at all? How long did it take?"

"I managed to get home for breakfast at least. I said I could do it, it was still a lot of work."

Nino saw his hands and noticed they were raw and missing a few layers of skin. They were pink as a newborn baby. She said, "Well, thanks. For your hard work, thanks."

Futaro looked up and gave her a small smile, and oh, why was he suddenly so handsome? Was he doing this on purpose? Did he know how stupidly attractive he was right now? He said, "No problem, Nino."

She looked away when he said her name, hiding her blush in her frustration and ignoring her stomach's giddy backflips, "You think, you can show me how to do it sometime?"

"Are you asking for extra tutoring?"

"Please don't push it."

"Alright, anytime."

Nino tapped his arm with her hand clutching the umbrella, "Hold this."

"Why?"

"My arm's getting tired." Futaro took it from her, shifting it just too far, "Careful! I'm getting wet!"

"Sorry," he said and shifted it back. He finally noticed their shoulders touching, he stared at the connection, then looked away without moving. He shifted to get comfortable, rubbing her shoulder like flint on steel.

Nino asked, "So I'm here. What did you want?"

"Huh?" Futaro sounded lost.

"The note, the one you failed to put in my desk, what is it?"

"Oh. That. Hold on," he pinched the bridge of his nose and concentrated, it looked painful, making his mind move when it wanted to stay still as stone. He snapped his fingers as it came to him, "Oh yeah, got it now. This past week, I couldn't stop thinking about us. And I realized something."

Nino straightened. Futaro had been thinking. About them. Nonstop! She dared to hope, "What about us?"

"It's not working."

And deflation. That was fast. And he thought she whiplashed, the hypocrite. She asked, "Oh. And?"

"So, I think we need a change."

"What are you talking about?"

Futaro pinched his nose and tried finding the words, but his tired mind struggled to bring them together. "I just, nothing we do is working, even when we try and help each other. It's like...I don't know, but I'm tired of seeing things go wrong. For both of us. So I though, what I thought is, maybe we should change directions. Go with the flow and see where that takes us."

"And what flow is that? I have no idea where you're going with this."

"Hear me out. What if we just go for it? Let's see if we can make something work together. And then, whether we do or we don't, we can move on."

"Futaro, are you asking me out?"

He looked at her pointedly with tired eyes and said, "Yes."

If she had to choose a place, time and person to ask her out, she'd choose the following, respectively: a castle, sunset, and Futaro. All things considered, one out of three wasn't bad. This was Futaro after all, a man with the romantic sense of a bag of manure. So she gave him the only answer she could.

"No way."

Futaro jerked, "What?"

"I said no."

"...Why?"

Nino glared, "That, right there. That's why."

"What where? That doesn't..." Futaro growled and gripped his hair. "You said you love me!"

"I do. And still no."

"But that doesn't make any sense!"

"Oh really," Nino began, and Futaro shrank from her glare, "Because every girl dreams of being asked out by the man she loves so they can 'get it over with'."

Futaro blinked away his confusion and caught her anger like a bad comedian catches rotten tomatoes, "Wait, that isn't what I meant!"

Nino turned away, "Forget it, I don't want your pity. I'm not one of your experiments."

"I know that, I just…I said it wrong."

She gazed over the railing while Futaro waited for her response, she gave him nothing, exactly what he deserved. She wondered if he realized how insensitive he was, and how much it hurt her.

He sighed and said, "Can I try again?"

Nino mulled it over a minute longer, letting him sweat, then said, "I suppose."

Futaro started again, more cautiously this time, "First, I'm not suddenly in love with you."

"Okay."

"And I'm also not doing this as an experiment."

"You just said-"

"I want to see if we work, that doesn't mean I'll be wearing a lab coat and taking notes during dates. I don't love you, but lately, I think something changed. And I've been beating my brain with both spurs trying to figure it out. But I think, maybe I'm only spending so much time trying to get a grip on this because it's important to me," he said, then looked to her. His cool stare was like fire in her stomach. "And you, I think you're important to me too. I don't know how, but you've become someone I care about. More than other people.

"I never thought about dating, not even after high school. Those things just never seemed like they'd matter. But lately, just last night in fact, I realized..." he looked away, she followed his face and caught him blushing like a blooming rose. He glared and asked, "Can you not look at me? This is hard enough already."

When Nino imagined prince charming opening his heart to her at last, his eyes would sparkle into hers with assurance that she was the only one he wanted to see. She wanted to see that devotion when her prince said those words that would change their world into a single road they'd walk together. So she wanted to protest and force him to show her that sparkle of promise. But this was Futaro, his eyes were empty as a well in the heart of the Gobi.

Only something was there now, and it was spreading. She heard it in the softness of his voice, she saw it in the tapping of his fingers. Something was pulsing in this indomitable boy that vibrated through him like a drumbeat. Its very presence embarrassed him. Not because he was ashamed, but because he couldn't understand what this was, only that it had to come out somehow. But if she reached for him and pried him apart to see it, he might sew himself up and stifle this glorious new rhythm. He would only show her when he was ready for her to see. So she looked straight ahead and crafted an image of her prince to play to his speech. And as she listened to his words, she heard the feeling that was still so foreign to them, like water and oil trying to mix for the first time. She felt their sparkle.

"I realized that, this might sound silly, but we have the same dream. We both want to be relied on and support the people close to us. When I see you, I see someone I admire, and I think I see myself. So if I want to date someone, and I think I might, then I...want that to be you," he paused for a moment and she dared to breathe, "And we'll see what happens from there."

She turned and found him staring at her. Had he been watching her reaction the entire time? What had she shown him? She'd been so focused on his words she hadn't paid any attention to herself. But he was waiting on her answer, he looked at her lips like they were a gateway to another world. She liked it. All of it.

Nino said, "That was one hell of a recovery, Fuu."

"So…?"

Nino closed her eyes and said, "So let's do it. But!" she turned, raising a finger, "This better be for real."

"Do you trust me?"

She opened her mouth, paused, and said, "I want to."

"Then it is," he leaned back and sighed.

Nino felt rain on her shoulder and shouted, "Hey! Watch the umbrella!"

"Ah, sorry," Futaro straightened and corrected his grip.

Nino wiped her hair and shoulder and said, "Honestly, try to be reliable."

"This thing is tiny, there's no room for error!"

"So practice, you'll be doing it again if this happens while we're out."

Futaro chewed on that for a moment, then said, "Yeah, got it," he paused, "We need a bigger umbrella."

"I like this one. It's cute."

"And impractical for two."

"Works fine right now."

Futaro sighed, "Yeah, guess so."

Nino said, "Tomorrow. You can take me out tomorrow."

"Why then?"

"Because you're getting some sleep tonight. No studying, got it?"

"Yeah, no worries there. My brain is barely firing." He paused, then asked, "Hey, did you check my assignment?"

"I've more than answered the question."

"Look again, there's-"

The door behind them slammed open, Itsuki shouted, "Nino! Are you up here!?"

Futaro shifted, "Itsummph!" Nino clapped her hand over his mouth and drew him close.

"Quiet," Nino said, sounding calmer than she actually was. They could not be caught like this!

They heard Miku say, "There's no one here."

Itsuki said, "Guess you're right. Let's check the auditorium."

Nino waited for the door to close before she let Futaro go. She said, "Listen, I don't want my sisters knowing about this. Not yet."

"What? Why not?"

"It's...I don't want to say right now. Please?"

She wondered if his eyes softened to match her own, because he relented and said, "Alright, sure. A secret."

"It's not like I'm embarrassed, I'm happy I'm going out with you. It's just-"

He smiled slightly, "You don't need to explain. I want to trust you too."

There he goes being charming again. She wanted to staple his lips into a line so he couldn't exploit her weakness. "Thank you."

Futaro said, "Alright, tomorrow night after group study. I'll make plans after lunch," he said and got ready to go.

Nino asked, "Where are you going?"

"Cafeteria, I'm starving."

Nino showed him the time on her phone, "Cafeteria's closed, lunch ends in fifteen minutes."

Nino waited for Futaro's weary mind to process the information like a librarian forced to use old punch cards. He slumped in despair and said, "Great. Wonderful."

Nino rolled her eyes and showed him her lunchbox, "Here, we'll share."

Futaro looked at the food curiously, "But it's yours."

"And?"

"...It's yours?"

"We've been dating for at least five minutes, we can share a lunch."

"Do you have extra chopsticks?"

"No. Now stop complaining and eat," she scooped a chunk of meat and rice and almost shoved it in his face, she would have if he hadn't opened his mouth in surprise at the last moment. She watched him chew and waited for him to realize she expected a response, "Er, it's good."

"Of course it is," she said and took a bite of her own. She closed her mouth and tasted the food, and the chopsticks, and realized this is what people call an indirect kiss. This wasn't like sharing chopsticks with her sisters or her parents, this was a boy. A boy she was dating, who wanted to date her. The same chopsticks that had been inside his mouth were in hers. Her tongue flicked the tip of one curiously, it was startling how much it excited her.

She chewed and readied another bite for Futaro. She watched his mouth close around the food and the thin bits of wood and wondered if he felt that same inquisitive buzz. Back and forth the sticks went, from food to boy mouth to food to girl mouth and repeat until her lunchbox was clean. A lunch meant for one left two with room for more, but lingering hunger was the last thing on either of their minds.

Nino caught Futaro checking his phone for the time, they had seven minutes to class. He slipped it into his pocket and continued staring into space, thinking about whatever his sluggish mind could manage. Whatever it was, it didn't include leaving. Futaro wasn't a man caught lingering, he shifted from one task to the next with cold execution, almost like a computer. If he stayed, he had purpose. And with nothing besides class to worry about and a mind too slow for serious thinking, she dared to hope that was her.

Gosh he was hot. Not physically, though. Well, maybe that too, she thought as she noticed the water glistening on his face. He scratched his hair and freed a few droplets, they raced down the curves of his cheek to meet at the bottom of his chin, bulging into one bulbous drop that tore itself free. Okay, he was hot, but he was also warm, her shoulder was burning at their touch. Her whole body felt like a bonfire, but her shoulder was practically scorching.

Futaro checked his phone again and saw two more minutes had passed. He said, "Maybe we should go."

Nino said, "Probably," they got up and carefully walked through the door under the cover of the umbrella. Futaro shook it off and closed it before shutting the door. She offered her hand for the umbrella. Futaro blinked, then grabbed her hand with his own. It felt like grabbing a handful of embers. Nino stuttered, "I-I meant the umbrella, of course!"

"Oh, here," he said without awkwardness, how could he be so calm?

Nino blushed as she took the umbrella, then said, "I'll go first. In case my sisters are still looking."

Futaro said, "Ah, good idea. I'll see you in class."

"And tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you then. And check my assignment."

She took the stairs two at a time and made it back to class with time to spare. Calling her sisters' inquiries a barrage would be reserved, but Nino brushed them aside and said she'd given the guy a piece of her mind. It wasn't a lie, not technically. The devil was in the details, and her sisters weren't ready for that level of hell. She'd tell them when things were more stable between the six, and the two of them.

She settled into her desk and took out Futaro's assignment like he'd told her to. She'd flipped to the last page and found her answer circled correct in bold red, almost like a kiss sealing an envelope. Her heart fluttered and she wanted to smile, but Ichika was right beside her and would pounce on any hint of unexplained joy. So she slouched over her desk and smiled secretly in her arms.

It was all happening at last. They had a date tomorrow night!

_**~Futaro~**_

_Hey, got a minute?_

_In classroom, what's up?_

_I'm at the roof. Can you bring me a towel?_

_WHAT!? What are you doing outside!?_

_Nino._

_Omw!_

If futaro had counted the minutes, he'd have been generous, Yotsuba was there in twenty-three seconds with a towel she snatched from...he was too sleepy to care. It looked clean, that was enough.

"Thanks Yotsuba," he said as he toweled himself off, or tried, the towel felt like an anvil in his hands. How exhausted was he that even drying himself was a trial? His pathetic constitution didn't help. He blinked and noticed Yotsuba staring at him like she expected him to break into interpretive dance. "What?"

"Don't play dumb."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Tell me what happened?"

Ah, of course. How had he not seen that coming? "It, uh, went okay...better than I expected." He blushed and tasted the remnants of the food she fed him. With her own chopsticks.

Yotsuba giggled, "Ah, it's so sweet! A good ol' fashioned rooftop confession!"

"Wish I'd checked the weather," Futaro said as he dried his hair again. Two classic confessions, rooftop and rain, did not mix together. Well, on second thought, maybe they did.

Futaro said, "She doesn't want me saying anything to the rest of you. What's up with that?"

"Oh! Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"So you know."

"No! I don't!" Yotsuba's face was a projector displaying everything on her mind in high definition. Hers was the most righteous face in the world, for if the mind demanded it process a lie, it met the falsehood like a cheese grater and gave the recipient the shredded remains. "Really! It's nothing, I swear!"

"Don't, you'll damn whatever you swear by!"

"Please, Futaro, don't push it! I know I can't lie to save my own butt and I really don't wanna have to try but if you keep pushing I'll have to spill it all and no one's gonna like that so please-"

"Okay! Okay! Just stop, please," Futaro said, he stopped following after she sped up like a jockey at the starting gun, it hurt just trying to keep up. "Alright, I'll drop it. Still, can't keep it a secret forever."

Yotsuba softened, "Yeah, heh. It'll come out eventually..." Futaro saw the signs on Yotsuba's face like a roadmap he was too tired to follow. She blinked, then lit up, "Ooh! Secret dating, it's so scandalous! Look at you, being sly with my own sister! I think I should be upset but I'm just so excited!"

This woman was a bottomless fountain of honey! Where did her energy come from? He felt like he should invent a device that harnessed Yotsuba's boundless intensity to solve the world's energy crisis.

He chuckled, there was an idea.

Yotsuba recoiled, "Futaro, what's up?"

"Huh?"

"Your laugh, it's weird."

"It's been a weird week," Futaro quipped. He rubbed his arm, it was tired from holding the umbrella so long. Where had Yotsuba found this endless energy? Stupid, he figured that out a long time ago: she grew it herself with years of hard work. A million steps and gallons of sweat. That was the price to pay. He wondered, was it worth it?

His body was a sack of meat for his mind. Nothing special. But this feeling he had, it was expanding. He's been wrong about so much until now, maybe he was wrong about his body too. He wanted more.

"Hey, can I ask a favor?"

"Sure!"

"I think I want to push myself. I want to get stronger. Can you, er, help me? Maybe take me running sometime?"

Futaro's optimism took an ominous turn when she accepted his request far too quickly. Yotsuba's grin split like the Cheshire cat, "Are you asking me to tutor you?"

"I guess I am."

She punched the air, "Alright! Morning run time it is!"

For the second time that day, Futaro wondered just what he was getting himself into, and once again he couldn't stifle that glimmer of excitement he felt. Things were changing. He was changing. Into what, he still didn't know. But even if it all came crashing down, it'd be exciting to find out.

**A/N**

I had a good time writing this one. Not only because it was a pivotal moment for each character after seven chapters of sidestepping each other, not only because each of them is showing interesting growth, not only because I've been waiting to write about actual dates, but also because I wrote half of this drunk. The kind of drunk you wake up regretting. And it was a blast. Turned out okay after editing too, I was surprised. I should write drunk more often.

I want to take a moment and explain some stylistic decisions. I am American, which means I can't share the same background as the original author, despite the story being set in Japan. So if somethings come off as appropriation or amalgamated, this is me doing my best to draft a story in an unfamiliar setting. I intend to inject my own background into the story, and so if it comes off as more western than the canon, I suppose it's inevitable. Regardless, I hope the humanistic elements that transcend those boundaries and take center stage.

Chapters will continue bi-weekly for some time, not only because I'm avoiding burnout, but because these ones will be longer than what's come before. I'm actually worried about the next chapter being too long, and may even separate it in two if need be. But updates will come, as regularly as I'm able.

You blew me away last chapter with your responses. I wanted to nail it as best I could, and from your reactions some of my intent came through. I want to write something meaningful, something that isn't immediately disposable. If this can have any lasting impression, if it makes you think, if the story means something, I'm on my way to meeting that goal. So thank you for sharing, and please continue reviewing. I'll write again soon.

Chapter published May 2nd, 2019.


	9. Date Night, Part One

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 9**

**Date Night, Part One**

_**~Futaro~**_

Studying was a single part of a wholesome education. Studying is opening a textbook and engaging with its contents until they stick like gum under the chair. But it was only the first phase of proper comprehension. After study came exercises in application, reproducing knowledge in new forms through combining and refining bits and pieces into a new product. And the final step, the stage that signified true mastery of subject, was teaching. The last leg of learning was presenting that same information to an open mind and passing it on. And thus the cycle will repeat until the end of space, or time, or willing minds.

For most of his successful academic life, Futaro had limited himself to the first, and sometimes second stages of knowledge. What other choices were there for an isolated academic? He'd thought of himself as a vacuum swallowing facts into a dust trap encyclopedia. But these sisters pushed him into that final stage. They tested his understanding with questions he never considered, they made him think up new avenues of description when his first explanation, one that always made perfect sense to himself, failed to clarify their problem. Teaching was more challenging than any test.

He hadn't noticed in the early months. Tutoring had been a necessary burden to support his family, not an avenue for growth. But overtime he recognized his own comprehension expanding, flexing from rigid metal into soft, forgiving rubber that absorbed blows like sunlight through a prism. For all the sisters had shown him about social bonds and friendship, they even managed to teach him something new about learning.

He never hesitated to stay late and tutor if he was free, which was almost always. He was growing right along with them. So on Saturday night, when Miku asked if he could stay past five for extra help, he almost accepted. But he remembered, even before catching Nino's accusing glare that almost dared him to forget their evening, and said, "Sorry, I have plans tonight."

Ichika blinked, "Oh? What kind of plans?"

"Dunno, something about a scholarship. It's about time I started looking." Lying was an easy science, all he had to do was shut off his emotions. His lies were a bodybuilder flexing his muscles. He caught Yotsuba in awe as his effortless lie, her envy teasing him like a feather.

Ichika said, "Oh, that's incredible. Of course you'd be thinking that far ahead."

Miku asked, "Futaro, where are you going to apply?"

"Tokyo University, or maybe Keio if I can afford it. Their representatives told me a year ago they have spots reserved for me if I want to apply. Or I might go abroad, I still haven't decided."

Miku looked crestfallen, "I see. Those are good schools. With high standards." What's this? Was she disappointed? In him? Did she think he was shooting too low?

Itsuki said, "I'm jealous, I'd love to have those options. I still have no idea where I want to go."

Nino huffed, "You think anyone will take us? Even if we ace this last semester, our transcripts tell sad stories."

Itsuki said, "If you wanna let that stop you, go ahead. I'm not done after high school."

Yotsuba said, "I think you have a good chance of getting into university, Itsuki. Your scores have gotten a lot better since last year."

Futaro looked at Yotsuba curiously and asked, "What about you, Yotsuba? What do you want to do?"

He finally found a question that took Yotsuba from sixty to zero. She hesitated, "Ah, who knows? I mean, it doesn't really matter yet. Does it? I mean I've got to the end of the year."

Not a good excuse. He'd ask her again some other time, when it was just the two of them. The other girls were giving him looks, were they upset he hadn't asked them? He didn't have time for a discussion. He could ask Nino in person tonight, the rest could wait for Monday.

"I'll see you at school, finish your assignments and have them ready by first period, I'll correct them over lunch."

Ichika grabbed a box against the wall and opened it. Resting inside were an array of colorful pastries that looked far too expensive for their budget. "Here, some energy before you go so you can do your best."

Futaro saw one shaped like a tree and wondered why anyone dyed food green. There was no nutritional benefit to coloring, and it made the food appear infested with mold. He almost went for a plain-looking eclair, but Nino's glare once again broadcast caution. She must not want him eating before their date. He waved Ichika away with thanks, she frowned and closed the box, completely missing Yotsuba's and Itsuki's gluttonous disappointment.

Itsuki caught Nino's displeasure and asked, "What's up with you?"

Nino said, "Nothing," in that way that guaranteed there was something. Itsuki grinned wickedly and Futaro realized she knew something. What the hell? Hadn't Nino wanted to keep this secret? What was the point if it was already common knowledge! Could Ichika and Miku know too?

There was a chemistry inside the home that he was completely removed from, and he had the wit to realize this was part of it. Whatever game they , or Nino, were playing, was between her and her sisters. And unlike before he didn't feel that pressing urgency to investigate this trail to its end. He had an experiment to…

There he goes again. Experiment. He couldn't think like that. This was a date. Just two people who might, or definitely are, interested in each other going out and testing the romantic waters. So it was a kind of experiment, only he didn't want to see it that way. To him, experiments were orderly, rigidly structured and emotionally apathetic. Tonight there would be none of that. Scratch that, there'd be order, unlike in his thoughts. Things would make sense, he promised!

He was slipping on his shoes when he heard someone behind him. He turned, "Miku?"

"Futaro, I have a question."

"Go for it."

"Is it hard?"

"Is what hard?"

"Getting into Tokyo University. Or Keio. Could someone like me do it too?"

It wasn't impossible. An impossibility is devoid of even the slightest potentiality of occurrence. There were few true impossibilities in the universe, at least ones that limited human minds could imagine. This was only highly improbable, so improbable that she shouldn't even think of it and save her energy for more practical aspirations. But he didn't tell her that, he caught a glint of hope in her eye. It twinkled like starlight breaking through the misty night. A hope of a dream. And his thawing heart didn't want to be the blow that killed his brightest student's dream.

"I've heard of worse students getting in. But I'd have a few safety schools lined up."

"What can I do to improve my chances?"

"Do as well as you can on the national exams. The mock exams will be a good gauge of where you are."

Miku nodded, then asked, "If I get in, and you go, can you keep tutoring me?"

"I don't see why not, depends on your major though. Ah, what do you want to study?"

"I'll think about it," Miku said, bowing her head as she left. Was she smiling? He saw Nino, her glare wanted to burn a hole though him. What was with her tonight? It's like she's pissed at the world and taking it out on him. His curious glare silently asked what the problem was. She huffed and left for the bathroom. Futaro shrugged, was this a girl thing?

Yesterday, after his long overdue nap, he'd asked his father for a second round of girl advice. He'd hoped that his father would take him out for another father-son chat, but this time his father insisted on making it a family affair. It swiftly became an inquisition. His sister prodded him for details about his mystery woman and he staunchly refused to tell her which of the sisters it was. He lasted five minutes under her barrage. Once Nino's name slipped out and Raiha got over her shock, and her disappointment that it wasn't Itsuki, she wanted to know details. So many arduous details!

And while his sister found new ways of embarrassing him, his father gave him point-by-point instruction on gentlemanly conduct with intricacy that rivaled a chess master's playbook. While useful, the information was overbearing for him, and that was saying something. At one point he asked why there needed to be so many steps, and in frustration he commented how complicated girls were. His father chastised him about putting up simple barriers between the sexes, telling him that he was probably just as confusing to her. He needed to remember perspective.

But now he was pretty sure, girls are weird.

That wasn't going to hinder his plans. He'd scoured the library for any book that even hinted at the secrets of a good date. He proudly designated himself the city's greatest first date expert after five hours of focused study!

He had a plan, he had redundancies, he had a step-by-step instruction manual all in his head! There was a lot to prepare, it'd take another forty minutes, maybe more, but he was up for the challenge. He hoped Nino could wait that long.

_**~Nino~**_

Stupid Ichika and her stupid baked treats. She didn't even make them herself, she bought them! What kind of romantic gesture was that? Hey, I think you're cute, and I can spend money. Love me!

And Miku, she couldn't call her stupid. That was well played, so well played that Futaro hadn't even noticed! So Miku wanted to go to the same university as him, did she? Well she'd have Futaro locked up long before that happened. At least she'd better. She'd never been more thankful that Futaro had the emotional intellect of a souffle. She'd had to ram her confession down his throat twice to get it to stick. There's no way he'll notice Miku. Maybe by the heat death of the universe, but she doubted it.

She wondered if this would be easier if she confessed their date to her sisters. She had to rip the bandage off at some point, it'd be just as painful now as then. But she wanted to wait until she had Futaro firmly in her camp. Once they saw them as a settled couple, they'd have no choice but to give up and move on, and the six of them could continue on as before. Nothing there had to change for everyone else, only for the two of them. If this date went well.

With a little prep, she'd make sure it did.

Preparing for a date was a lot like planning a war. Only without the casualty lists, and the national assembly war directives, and you wanted the enemy to love you. Okay, maybe it wasn't so much like war. But they did have something in common: planning for the battlefield. She needed to consider every factor in play: the terrain, the supply chain, and the adversary she wanted to conquer. Unfortunately Futaro was playing coy and refused to give specifics about their date tonight. Who knew he liked surprises. So she'd do her best with what she had.

The recipe for a perfect date, woman's side: a perfect appearance that screamed interest. It wasn't all that different from cooking. There are three steps: get the proper ingredients, the right outfit, then mix it all together, makeup, and finally add heat, or in her case, _heat_.

After her bath, she slipped into black lace underwear that answered the question why swimming wear was appropriate for public and underwear was not. This wasn't for Futaro, he had no chance of seeing these tonight. This was for her, they filled her with a private confidence, like her own hotness burned away lingering doubts.

Next came the dress she'd chosen the night before. She'd scavenged her closet, then her sisters' closets, then hers again when nothing seemed up to the task, like she was staring at a menu with a hundred entrees and nothing to eat. At last she found an outfit she settled on tolerating: a knee-length emerald dress she'd worried wouldn't fit anymore. Her worries vanished when she tried it on, it fit snug as a blanket on a cold winter night.

Dressing was the easy part, the next step would be trickier. She claimed the bathroom for herself and arranged her plentiful makeup tools and was ready to set to work. Only, now that she looked at herself in the mirror, this dress suddenly lost its earlier appeal. What was she thinking choosing anything with a collar? She did not want to come off looking like a child tonight.

She left to change, searching for ten minutes before settling on an ankle-length dress that matched a cloudy night sky. She zipped up the side and returned to the bathroom after waiting for Miku to finish using the toilet. Miku looked at her suspiciously as she opened the door, "What are you doing?"

"That dress wasn't doing it for me."

"Uh-huh. Why do you care so much?"

"It matters how a girl looks going out."

"A dress is a dress. You spend too much time worrying about those things," Miku walked away, but Nino held her trump card close to her chest. She'd already won, she'd seal the deal with Futaro tonight. Every detail mattered, especially the little ones. They built her up like a mountain of pebbles breaching the heavens.

After she closed the door she took her tools and applied a new face. Makeup was a delicate art, and contrary to what skeptics may think, it wasn't about covering oneself with a mask as if her own face was a personal shame, it was about accentuating what was already there. She knew she was cute, pretty, maybe even beautiful. But beauty can be fragile. A little foundation and blush hardened those features like resin. Makeup is armor women don to face the world. It made Nino feel like she was at the top of her game just by looking at herself, like she could tackle anything that came her way, even Futaro's arctic heart. She finished curling her eyelashes and tracing her eyeliner and looked at herself. Perfect.

Brushing her hair should have been the final step, in a few minutes she should have been ready. But as she looked at herself in the mirror brushing her shortened strands, she began to hate her black dress. Her hair and face radiated color and life and her dress was a black void sucking her body into bland obscurity. She looked like a lighthouse on a starry night, and she didn't think the comparison was flattering. She wanted every part of herself to catch like a painting you could stare at for hours and still find hidden surprises.

She grabbed a makeup protector and left the bathroom. Ichika, Miku and Yotsuba were gathered around the kotatsu and watched her like she was a unicorn prancing from one room to the other. "What're you doing?" Miku asked.

"Changing."

Miku shook her head and went back to her book, the book Futaro chose for her. Miku got a book, Nino would get Futaro.

She opened her closet and scoured it for the third time. She decided she wanted the night to be all about her and didn't check her sisters' clothes again. She kept finding reasons to reject each outfit; this one was too pale, this one too long, this one too showy, this one-

Ah, this one was just right. It was a wine-colored dress that reached halfway down her calves. She'd bought it a few weeks before Christmas, it got buried in her closet after the move and she'd all but forgotten about it. But that changed tonight. She slipped into it and already felt it sheathing her comfortably in all the places she wanted it to hug. The neckline dipped a bit low, plenty to tease if she wanted to.

But would Futaro even care? He never looked at any of them, or anyone, like men look at women. She became angry as she wondered if all this effort was for nothing. Would Futaro even recognize her intentions? Or was all her preparation a wasted effort, as if she could show up in her school clothes and it'd be just as special for him?

Wait, and what if he showed up in his school clothes? He wore them all the time, even on weekends like they were all he had. What if he wore them now? Did he know how unacceptable that would be!?

She calmed down by telling herself that even he couldn't be that dense. He was a guy, a typical high school guy. Okay, maybe no so typical, but he had to be normal enough to know you didn't wear school clothes on a date! And he had to know that girls put effort into things that mattered. He was analytical, surely he could pick up that clue. Then she had an idea to test him. She'd wear a loose-fitting cardigan over her dress, reveal herself at dinner and wait for a reaction. She looked good tonight, dammit, and if there was ever a time for him to look, it was tonight. But not too much, that'd be creepy. An appropriate amount? What even defined appropriate on a date? How could she know, she'd never done this before!

"Shall I zip you up?" Ichika said as she opened the door. She smiled as if watching a needy toddler show off after dressing themselves for the first time. But Nino saw something boiling below that sisterly affection.

She turned and presented her back, a universal sign of trust. Ichika wasn't her adversary, not really. They were competitors in romance, but sisters first and always. Ichika took the zipper and slowly guided it up her back. Nino lifted her hair as she secured it at the top.

"You're sure taking your time. Got something special planned?" She asked, her voice rising at the end like a whip ready to crack. Ichika was a detective of the home, if any of her sisters brought home a secret, she smelled it like a hound smells jerky through the bag. She knew how to pry ever so delicately, almost tickling them out of hiding. But Nino knew her sister's game and was prepared.

"Going to a concert, dancing with some friends," she lied.

"Oh really. It's been a while since we went out, hasn't it?" Ichika knew why, it always came back to money and their newfound dearth of it. The decent teen concert venues, the ones that didn't tolerate creeps and allowed her to have a good time, could be pricey, and she wouldn't risk embarrassment if they weren't letting cute girls in free that night.

"It's been a rough week, I need a chance to go wild."

Ichika leaned in, "This wouldn't have anything to do with that love letter, would it?"

She felt Ichika's chin settle on her shoulder like the tip of a pincer testing her skin, "I already told you, I told him off."

"Really? Alright," Ichika said whimsically like she was casting a spell, it teased Nino like cold fingers stroking her spine. Ichika turned to leave, waving, "Have a good time, try not to step on anyone's toes."

"I'm a great dancer."

"Of course, sis." Even as she walked away Nino felt like eyes were peeking through her pixie-cut searching for any hint of her malfeasance. She felt like she was under a spotlight, her heart beating like a drumbeat that betrayed her battle plans. She told herself she was paranoid, Ichika might suspect she wasn't telling the whole truth, but she couldn't know about Futaro of she'd come out and say it. She just couldn't help prying when she smelled something scandalous. Did she see how unfair that was? Hadn't Ichika been modeling for months before telling anyone? Who was she to play the inquisitor? Nino deserved some personal space just like the rest of them. Let Ichika wonder a bit longer, even if she kept hunting for clues, she only had to evade her for a while. She'd tell her the truth eventually.

She checked her phone and saw a stream of texts going back a half hour. All from Futaro. She read them in order and saw his growing impatience with each new message. She texted back and said she'd be out in a minute.

Futaro responded, 'K'.

Nino cringed, what was he upset about? She told him she'd need time to get ready. Things were off to a great start, she told herself mockingly.

She left the bedroom and slipped on a pair of white heels with little bows on the fronts. She dropped her phone into her matching purse and called, "I'm off! There's leftovers in the fridge!"

Yotsuba held up an open container, "Already on it!"

"And give some to Itsuki when she gets back from the book store!"

Miku called, "Take care."

Ichika smiled thinly, "Have a great time."

Nino pulled on her white cardigan and left her family behind for her next adventure.

The spot where she'd agreed to met Futaro was a few blocks away, well outside the prying eyes of her family. She peered over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't followed, Ichika's muse haunted her like a phantom. She wanted to leave her sisters out of this. But only for now. She'd come back for them later, when all six of them could go forward at once.

She saw Futaro malingering under a streetlight. She wanted to jump for joy when she saw his outfit. It wasn't his school clothes! A blue button-up shirt! Black slacks! Were those leather-yes! Yes, they're leather shoes! Since when did he own clothes this nice?

Nino grinned, "Hey you, you clean up well."

Futaro spoke with the spirit of gloom possessing him, "What kept you?"

With that, he flushed all the charm his outfit worked so hard to gift him down the toilet. "Excuse me?"

"I've been waiting here for over half an hour."

"I told you I needed time to get ready!"

"How could you possibly take that long?"

Having all her prep discarded so easily raised a little ire, and that must have caught in her glare, because Futaro, denser-than-lead Futaro, seemed to realize he stepped in it. "Ah, never mind. Er, you look good."

It was a weak save, but at least he was trying. "You get one tonight. That was it."

Futaro scowled, "Now who's counting points," he quipped, then caught himself and moved on, "Whatever. I, uh, let's get going."

"Are we taking the train?"

"No."

He walked to a familiar motorcycle parked on the street, "Is that the cake shop's bike?"

"Yeah."

"He let you borrow it?"

"Why not? Only the manager and I can ride it and he never makes deliveries."

She almost berated him for not telling her. She was not dressed for a motorcycle ride. Did he notice her dress came past her knees? How was she supposed to show any decency on this thing? But Futaro handed her a helmet and she imagined the pair riding through the night. Together. Was that his intention? Something more intimate than a train ride? She could deal with a little discomfort for that. She took it and said, "Where to?"

"You'll see."

"Be careful of puddles," she warned.

She settled in and raised the hem of her dress to straddle the rear seat. Futaro strapped his helmet and started the engine, it growled to life like a lion in the safari plains. And Futaro was its master. Her prince. She hugged him from behind and held on tight. Futaro revved the engine and she felt the world shift on takeoff.

There was nothing like riding a motorcycle. It was a thin amalgamation of human, metal and raw power propelling them through the wind. Nino clung to Futaro's back, feeling his body shift to guide them in each turn. He felt in control, like a knight leading a charge. She let him carry her away into the wild unknown.

The illusion was ruined when he killed the engine in an alley parking lot, she wished the restaurant had been further away. She slipped off her helmet and checked her hair and ribbons in her pocket mirror. She caught Futaro gazing at her, hinting impatience. She said, "What?"

Futaro was learning the value of discretion, he said, "Nothing, we'll go when you're ready."

Nino snapped her mirror shut, "Done. Where to?"

Futaro guided her out of the alley and into the night strip, a long alley illuminated by a myriad of neon signs and colorful advertisements bathing the streets in color. People of every generation roamed the streets and Futaro led her into the shifting masses. Nino recognized the area, and it wasn't cheap. Even if she hadn't been familiar with it, just glancing at the crowds revealed what they should expect. The abundant light played off of jewelry and wristwatches, she recognized major brands dominating the crowds of shoppers carrying bags proudly emblazoned with the names of luxury stores. Was Futaro's wallet ready for this? Silly question, of course it was. Futaro wouldn't be here unless he planned every detail, down to the step count from parking to hostess of the upscale sushi restaurant he led her to. She'd expect nothing less from him.

The hostess said, "Welcome! Do you have a reservation?"

Futaro asked, "What's a reservation?"

As they left the restaurant in shame, Nino chided, "I can't believe you've never made a restaurant reservation."

"Shut up."

"Not just tonight, but ever."

"I said-"

"I heard you."

"Why should they need reservations? Why don't they just get more tables and make more money? It's basic economics!"

"Exclusivity, quality control, you name it. Point is we're not eating there tonight."

Futaro gleamed, "Not there, but I have a backup!"

"With reservations on a Saturday night?"

Futaro said nothing and confirmed her fears. But his confidence was infectious, she almost believed he could save the night. So she strapped her helmet back on and hugged him.

Futaro paused before starting the engine and asked, "Hey, when we're moving, can you lean with me?"

"What?"

"During turns, lean in with me."

"Towards the ground? That's too scary."

"It's better if both riders work together."

"I've never tried that, what if I fall?"

"You won't. Feel my body, I'll guide you."

She blushed, did he have any idea what that sounded like? She said, "Fine, I'll try."

They took off. When they approached their first turn she felt the momentum carry her away from their curve, but Futaro's torso shifted into it, challenging it as if daring it to reach out and take him. She clung tighter and tried to follow. It was scary, she was terrified she'd slip off. She closed her eyes tight to shut out the world until all she could feel was the wind and his back as she clung on for her life. As he leaned, she leaned into him just to stay close, almost ready to tell him to stop so she could get off this thing.

Futaro stopped at a light and said, "Good work, not bad for a beginner."

That's all she needed to hear. She held on tight as they sped away.

After parking a second time and rounding the corner to their backup restaurant, it was clear they'd have open seats. Just none for them. Because it was closed for renovations.

Futaro sighed, "I can't believe it."

Nino chided, "Didn't you look any of this up beforehand?"

"Kind of."

"Where?"

Futaro held his breath, then said, "My dad."

"You didn't check online?"

"We don't have internet at my house."

"Your phone?"

"Text and calls only. No data."

Nino asked, "So what else you got?"

"Plenty."

Back on the bike, back to the roars and the wind and the fear. She lashed her arms around Futaro's chest so tightly she felt it rise and fall with his breathing. She clung so tightly to him that he might have struggled for air, but if he did he didn't stop her. Her hair whipped through her vision in the wind as if she were a flag branding their territory. The turns weren't as scary as before, as if each turn licked away a layer of fear. She felt more confident to lean deeper with Futaro, shifting her weight until they were parallel with each other, almost like they were driving the bike together.

Futaro complimented her when they parked, "Not bad, I didn't expect you to pick it up so quickly."

"Never doubt me, Fuu."

"Force of habit from staring at your homework."

"Low blow."

This strip was less crowded than the others, Futaro must have shifted his route to a less popular district that might have open seats. His strategy paid off when they entered an Italian restaurant and were given a booth in a corner. Nino smiled when she saw Futaro's eyes sparkled with success, his joy was catching.

The dining area was small and filled with red-and-white checkered tables. Plaster carvings lined the walls in homages to classical artwork and the ceiling was painted with chubby naked babies taking flight with tiny wings in fields of clouds. It was trying so hard to be Italian, but that's the word, it was trying. She knew proper Italian cuisine, her family had taken a holiday to Rome three years ago. This didn't look anything like the restaurants in the city, it looked like a designer had cobbled together a collage of Italian images from the internet and thrown some tables between them. But it was an atmosphere, at least it was trying, like Futaro. Points to the restaurant, and to him.

The hostess offered Nino her seat. She leaned in as Futaro sat and said, "Third time's the charm, Fuu."

Futaro said smugly, "I knew it'd work out. I'm actually happy we ended up here, it's hard to find authentic Italian in Tokyo. Did you know that Italians actually don't put meatballs in their pasta? It's a side dish."

Oh no, he was rolling out the trivia already. "Think it's any good here?"

"Should be. Let's see," he said and opened his menu.

She hit a snag, the place had too many choices. Over a dozen entrees each for chicken, lamb, chef's specials, it just kept going. How did the cooks manage so many different recipes? She liked to scan the entire list and highlight a few favorites that she'd compare later. They'd be here an hour before ordering if she did that now. So she settled on a small shrimp pasta. It was simple, safe, and she suspected the shrimp might even be fresh.

Everything went downhill when the waitress arrived to take their orders. She was pretty with long black hair tied in a neat braid and nice, angular cheekbones framing a preppy smile. She nicely filled out her black velvet skirt and a white top that was a button shy of Nino's standard of acceptable. This was a woman entering her prime, fully formed after leaving the remnants of childhood behind. She looked much too talented to be working here. This woman should be working at the kind of restaurant she used to frequent, somewhere with Michelin stars and high price tags. A restaurant where Futaro wouldn't see her.

The waitress smiled at her, she smiled back. Nino's smile kindly asked her to get lost as quickly as possible. The waitress's smile said she was used to it.

Nino ran a silent stopwatch as Futaro ordered for them, her eyes on his checking for even the slightest dip south to catch a glimpse between those undone buttons. His smile had better just be polite, she thought warningly. But any threat this woman might have posed was killed when she accidentally offered them wine. She bit back a laugh as Futaro just glared like it was the stupidest question he'd ever been asked, high competition considering his students. The waitress got the message and took their wine menu away. She finished taking their orders, collected their menus and left the couple to themselves.

Crisis averted. But Itsuki's early warning rang true and Futaro remained impervious to the allure of femininity. Had he erased the sexual part of his brain to make room for more pointless trivia? She didn't mind him ignoring other women, in fact she hoped that never changed, but she wanted all that attention on herself. A date was an open invitation for him to look at her, to notice her. To appreciate her. She wanted to catch him staring, just once, to know that she could draw his eyes away from the world. It was time to play her trump card.

"It's warm in here," Nino said and slipped out of her cardigan, shrugging her shoulders back as she unloaded it onto the chair.

Futaro said, "Huh? Can't you feel the AC? Why do they even have it on in winter?"

Disaster. Nino bit her lip and said, "Just me then." Was the dress not enough of an invitation!? It was all but screaming 'look at me'! Did she have to wear a dress made out of a prep guide before he'd look at her? She wasn't giving up yet, she had one last trick up her sleeve.

She raised her arms and arced her back while popping out her chest, wining like a tea kettle as she stretched her back. She peeked through lidded eyes and checked Futaro. He checked his watch, then glanced at the kitchen. His eyes never dipped down.

Nino gave up. Why did Itsuki have to be right?

Futaro asked, "You alright?"

"Fine." Just her pride.

"You don't like the place?"

"No, the food smells good. How did your dad find out about this place?"

"Ah, he didn't tell me about this one."

"Then what? Have you been here before?"

"No, this was, well, my mom told me about it. She took my dad here for their first anniversary. He'd been saying how he wanted to visit Italy someday, but they couldn't afford it, so she took him as close as she could get him."

Nino perked up, Futaro actually had a love story! "Really, was he-" she was cut off by her ringtone, a jingle she'd set months ago. It was as cute then as it was annoying now. She frowned and checked the number. "Hang on a minute, it's Yotsuba. I'll be right back," she said. Futaro nodded and she headed for the hallway leading to the restrooms.

She picked up, "What is it?"

"Hello Nino," Ichika said, her voice a flick to the forehead, "How's it going?"

"Why are you on Yotsuba's phone?"

"Mine's charging, just wanted to check up on you." Liar, she must think she wouldn't pick up if it was her number. She thought right. Darn she was clever. "I don't hear any music. Not in the concert yet?"

"We stopped for dinner, what of it?"

"Nothing, just interested in your evening. It sounds so much more fun than what I'm doing. Maybe I should've joined you."

"Sorry I didn't invite you. Maybe next time."

"I'm sure," she said, then continued, "Tell me all about it when you get home, I could use a good story."

"Sure thing. I should get back now."

"Don't let me hold you up. Goodnight Nino."

"Night." She hung up. Her instincts were spot on, she should've trusted them. Ichika wasn't letting her suspicions rest, she was tracking them down like at big game hunter on safari. Nino quickly texted her friends with a story and asked them to back her up in case Ichika called them. She'd deal with their questions after tonight, survival was first priority, after Futaro. Once she was sure she covered her bases, she left the hallway and returned to their table.

Futaro was sitting quietly at their table, his shoulders shifted like he was using his phone. But she'd watched him enough to know that particular shoulder roll. He was flipping note cards. He was actually studying on their date!

She strode up behind him and leaned over his shoulder, "So what's this? Physics? History? Literary quotes?"

Futaro stiffened, then shifted to her like he was held together with gel, "Hey Nino, uh, this isn't what-" At least he knew to be embarrassed.

"Oh isn't it? Then what is it?" She snatched the flashcards away and flipped through them. Maybe she was looking for a fight, but she didn't let herself think that, this was on Futaro for bringing his studies on a date. Their date. He couldn't leave it behind for one night, even for her, even after everything he said. Only as she read the flashcards, she realized he had.

"These are...dating notes?"

Futaro flushed and rubbed his face, "Well, yeah. Kind of, just some things I looked up."

"When? You were supposed to be sleeping yesterday."

"I did! Then I went to the library."

"What about the mock exams?"

Futaro shrugged, "This seemed more important."

You were more important. He didn't say it, but she felt it. Just this once she beat out academics, that was a victory in itself. Her night suddenly became much more promising.

She handed back the flashcards and took her seat, "I suppose it paid off. You landed on your feet after those stumbles."

Futaro grinned like a card shark about to make his play, "I got this night planned inside and out. I got backups to my backups to my backups!"

Another phone ringing, this ringtone was unfamiliar to her. Futaro checked his caller ID and went rigid as an ice cube, "Oh crap."

"What? Who is it?"

"I...gotta take this." Futaro answered and sat straight as a waterfall, "Hello manager...well yes, I...but you weren't gonna use it! Yes, I know...okay, yes, I should have asked, I just thought...what deliveries!? You never use it your-" Futaro listened for a stiff minute, slumping further into defeat with each second like melting cream, "...Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I'll bring it back. Now? Can't I...fine. Yeah. Got it."

Futaro hung up his phone and glared at the floor, "I need to return the bike."

Nino leaned in and asked, "You got a backup for that too?"

**A/N**

This chapter is only half of the content I had planned. As writing continued it became clear that there was too much to fit into one chapter, unless I was willing to write a chapter over 10,000 words long. That's something I'd like to avoid, for continuity and for ease of reading. So this first date chapter is now a two-parter, and the good news that part of that chapter is already written, so I expect to be able to publish it next week if all goes well. So if this chapter feels at all incomplete, like a cliffhanger, that's because it is, but the conclusion will be published shortly after.

I'd like to request a specific type of feedback, one I haven't received any for yet. I intend for this to be a romance story first, a family drama second, and a comedy third. And given how subjective comedy can be, I'd like you to tell me if this story has been humorous so far. Have you ever laughed, or rolled your eyes at something that was meant to be hilarious? Let me know so I can improve it.

The conclusion to their first date should be up next week, and if not, then the week after. Thank you to everyone who's continued to follow this story and wish it success through completion. Please continue to review and I'll update again soon.

Chapter published: May 16th, 2019.


	10. Date Night, Part Two

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 10**

**Date Night, Part Two**

_**~Nino~**_

Their night would end as Futaro parked the bike. He killed the engine, it died like a drowning man slipping beneath the waves.

Nino crossed her arms and said nothing, for a while they looked at each other in silence that begged to be broken. But silence was a damn withholding a deluge of everything still unsaid. Futaro had no trouble meeting her eye, but he was dripping with embarrassment at floundering their date, and she stayed quiet because anything she said would inevitably be tinted with blame. The specters floated above them, each threatening a different sad ending for their night.

But silence was like holding one's breath, you had to breathe eventually. Futaro gasped first and said, "Give met your helmet."

She gripped it and asked, filtering her frustration through a fine strainer, "What're you gonna tell him?"

"I'll think of something."

"You haven't already?"

"This is a tough one," he paused, looking like he was imagining all the tough ones recently pressuring his life.

Nino saw the weight on him as if someone turned up the gravity. She frowned, "So let's go."

"No."

"This isn't-"

"Nino," Futaro snapped, not in anger, rather in frustration for just one thing to go his way tonight, "I want to go alone. Give me the helmet," he said, reaching for it.

Nino leaned against the bike and said, "What's with you? What kind of guy leaves a girl alone in an alley?"

"He doesn't need to know you're involved. I want it to stay that way."

Nino tapped her finger on her arm, "He'll find out eventually."

"No, he won't." He moved his arm a little closer, "Please, give it back."

Nino wanted to deny him again and insist, as if that might make this any easier. But Futaro loomed over her like he did as her tutor, firm as a castle gate, unwilling to budge against the battering ram. Or like a knight ready to shield her from a vagabond. Her knight, just for this moment. So she let him, she handed over her helmet and said, "I'll be here."

Futaro took it and headed for the door with the poise of a soldier heading for the front lines. Or a prisoner to the gallows. Because that's what this was, really. He would walk in that door with a job and walk out without it, and maybe more if the manager involved the law. This cake shop was like his child, anyone daring to mess with its growth and prosperity could expect a quick boot out the door as a start. What had Futaro been thinking when he took that motorcycle without permission? He was supposed to be the smart one.

She watched his slowly retreating form and realized that when he stepped through that door without a job, that'd be it for them. She held their boxed leftovers, untouched from the restaurant, in front of her, they were going cold against her legs. There'd be no eating together afterwards, there was no way to salvage that kind of blunder. He'd take her to her place with some small platitude and end the worst first date in existence. How could he possibly want another? When something goes so incredibly wrong, why even bother with second chances? It's like the world was saying it wasn't meant to be.

Futaro was her knight leaving her safely in the keep while marching into battle. But sometimes knights didn't come back, or came back scarred. She could fill a hat with all the reasons she was upset with him now and raffle them off for prizes. She was angry with his lack of planning, his lack of attention, and definitely for his decision to borrow this damn bike. But she wanted him to come back to her in one piece. And she didn't want their night to end like this.

So she wouldn't let it.

Futaro opened the door and she squeezed past him. "Changed my mind!"

"Nino, stop!"

"Come on, keep up."

She stormed into the employee lounge where one of the servers was taking a rest. He went slack-jawed at the sight of her. At least someone gave her the reaction she wanted.

She asked, "Where's the manager?"

He deserved an award for managing to stammer, "Uh, the kitchen? I think?"

Futaro caught up and said, "Nino, I said stop!"

"Come with me," she moved on before he could stop her. Futaro sneered and followed her, leaving their coworker dumbfounded and doomed to spend the rest of his break wondering what comical event he'd unleashed.

Her entrance into the kitchen was less dramatic than she would have liked, but that was the nature of a bakery. If the trio of employees weren't absorbed in every detail of their work, they were doing it wrong. The three were carefully finishing their final cakes of the night, they'd all be on cleaning duty soon. None of them noticed her at first. Good thing, too, because the manager was right there with them. He was decorating a vanilla cream cake with strawberries with the speed and precision of an assembly line.

Futaro stopped behind her and grabbed her hand, pulling her back, "Nino, not now-"

"Hey! We're here!"

The bakers were dedicated, but human, and Nino's voice was a siren of alarm no one could ignore. Their coworkers looked up and were flabbergasted at the sight of the most elaborately dressed body ever to set foot in their humble kitchen. Their eyes danced to her, to Futaro, and the hands between them, which Nino realized were still holding onto each other. Connected. To him. It hadn't happened the way she'd imagined, but what about this night had? She'd take what spark she could strike. She didn't know what Futaro was thinking under their stares, but whatever it was made him slowly release her hand. She tightened her grip and held on tight, not out of selfish enjoyment, but because the manager was looking their way.

Only a man with a gambling problem would dare to place a bet on what thoughts were streaming behind those tired eyes. The manager was blank as a lake on a windless day, calm on the surface, but with life in those dark depths.

In battle, she who seizes the initiative shall seize victory. Nino started, "What's this all about? Why are you calling us on our off days? What makes you think you can interrupt our evening?" Our evening, she stressed that part like Futaro stressed the spine of his textbooks.

The manager said, "Uesugi, she with you?"

Futaro opened his mouth to speak, Nino cut him off, "Why else would I be here? Do you know what time it is? What kind of manager calls their employees after sundown on a night off?"

"Fine. Both of you, come with me," he said.

"Why should we? Neither of us are-" the manager walked right past her tirade as if he were a rock sailing through rice paper. Nino stood embarrassed, her point half-made and roundly ignored. Her cheeks heated up like bread rising in the oven.

Futaro sighed and tugged her hand, "We're in this together now."

He led her after the manager. They entered his office, it looked like a broom closet that had been gutted to make room for a small desk that was still too long, the manager had to shimmy between it and the wall to reach his seat. Nino and Futaro took the two damaged dining chairs on the other side and waited like park security before the gates opened for business.

The manager sat down and went straight to the point, he didn't waste time on theater. He held out his hand and said, "Keys."

"Here," Futaro handed them over.

"What made you think you can take my bike for a joyride?"

Futaro tried to maintain his nonchalant demeanor. Tried. "You're the only other person who can ride it, and you never-"

"So you can just take it?"

"I didn't-"

"You did."

"No, listen, I was going to bring it back with a full tank of gas."

"Did you?"

"You told me to come straight here, so no."

"Now you're following instructions?" He glanced at Nino and she stared back, challenging him to bring her into this like a boxer in the wings. He never asked why she was with him, he'd gathered enough when he saw their hands. And even a dimwit could guess she was dressed for a special night. He shifted back to Futaro and said, "How did you-"

Nino interrupted, "How did you know it was missing? You'd never use it."

He glanced at her. He wasn't annoyed, but his eyes glimmered with a rare glow, like a lighthouse in the distance, "I know everything happening in my store."

"Even that?"

"Everything."

Futaro was still holding her hand, she could feel his sweat. He squeezed it and silently told her to back down. She ignored him, "Then you know Futaro does enough for you that you can lend him the bike for a night. How many nights has he closed for you?"

"This month? Four."

Nino paused, "...You actually know?"

The manager blinked, then looked at Futaro, "Closing. Not a bad idea. Your punishment will be to close each day you work for three weeks. And polish my bike, it's losing its shine."

Futaro paused, "You're not firing me?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Delivery service is picking up. Need a rider."

Futaro's hand went slack in hers, as if all his energy shifted to his brain to understand how he was getting off so lightly. These were the miracles that made men believe in higher powers. "I...can do that."

"Good," the manager said, then looked at the bag Nino was carrying. "What's that?"

Nino held it up, "Italian."

"Smells nice."

"It's gone cold, thanks to you."

He nodded, "Give it," she didn't, but he took it anyway and popped it in the microwave on the file cabinet in the corner.

Nino said, "You can't eat that."

"Huh?"

"It's ours, we're not sharing."

"Not hungry."

Futaro asked, "So why are you doing that?"

"You're not taking my bike again."

"I wasn't planning on it."

"Good," he tapped his fingers idly on his desk like a ticking clock marking the dawdling silence, until the microwave dinged like an announcement it was okay to breathe again. The manager took their food and told them to follow.

He led them through the hall and into a door they'd never opened. They climbed the thin stairway to the second floor. They stepped into a room and wondered why there was a haunted house above their restaurant. The manager flicked on the lights and illuminated columns of boxes stacked one after another in a room as wide as the dining area below. It felt like they'd stepped into a back alley pawn shop.

Nino crossed her arms and eyed the boxes warily, as if they might unleash some horror from the darkest corner of her mind, "Why'd you take us here?"

"No outside food in the shop. Lounge is for on-duty employees only." He pointed to a mesh table with four chairs that looked like it belonged at a yard sale, "Take it to the balcony. 'Night." He left without another word, as if a manager taking his off-duty employees to their creepy storage room and telling them to eat was an everyday affair. It wasn't, at least not to Nino. But who was she to judge? This was her first job, was all employment secretly this crazy?

The answer was no, they were not. But what about this night had been normal? This was par for the course, unplanned surprise was their evening routine.

Nino resigned herself to the insanity and held up their food, "Wanna eat?"

She watched Futaro, who was taking this all too well. Maybe he was used to it. His eyes shifted between the food and the table, then he clapped his hands and strained to smile. He announced with an enthusiasm stripped of all authenticity, "Alright, sounds like a plan!"

He got to moving the table, or, trying. The guy needed to lift some dumbbells. No, that was starting too strong, maybe some soups cans. Small ones. She reminded herself that this was her prince.

Nino grabbed the other end of the table and lifted, it was heavier than it looked, "Come on," she said. Futaro looked embarrassed as they lifted it. Together they got the table out onto the balcony. As he opened the door she was blasted by the frigid air, like walking into an industrial refrigerator. They set the table down and she rubbed her arms, wishing she'd brought something thicker.

Then Futaro did something right, he noticed her chill and offered his jacket. "Here, take this," he said, almost sounding eager. He finally saw his chance to act on something he studied and seized it like a shopper snatching the last of the hottest item on sale.

Not that it wasn't appreciated. It was a definite step in the right direction. Nino slipped on his jacket with his help. It was still warm from his body, like wrapping herself in a sauna. It was big on her and wrapped her up like a blanket. But his gift was a sacrifice. Futaro's body was skin, bones, and enough muscle to support his massive brain. He had all the insulation of an open window. Futaro rubbed his arms casually, but she could see the chill.

Nino said, "Let's put it back inside."

Futaro blanked, "With the boxes and the dust?"

Good point, but the chill would ruin their night just as quickly, and it'd only get worse as the night went on.

Before she could say more, Futaro said, "I'll get us some water. Wait here."

Nino said, "Okay," as he headed back down the stairs. She closed the door to the balcony and sighed. What was she doing here? At work, on a date. Where were the flowers, the candles and the subtle string quartet weaved into pleasant conversation? She wanted a date, not an obstacle course. Dates with your sweetheart were supposed to be bonding moments, a release from the stresses of the outside world. She tried leaving everything in her life outside of tonight, so that the two of them could be alone and together.

And the funny thing? In spite of all of that, she still wanted this to work. This date was an unparalleled disaster and she still had this vague idea that Futaro could right it somehow. And he hadn't given up yet, even if he looked close to breaking, like a crack spreading through a window. She'd let him try a little longer.

Futaro returned with two glasses of water and a slice of cake. "Where did that come from?"

"The manager gave it to me. Said it was damaged and he couldn't sell it."

She checked it, "Where? Looks fine to me."

"That's what I said," he set it down and continued, "Wait a little longer, I found something!" He left before he could explain, the look of a hunter in his eyes. She was alone again.

This time he didn't return right away. Whatever he was doing, he was taking his time doing it. Nino amused herself and wandered through the piles of boxes. She wondered what was inside each one. What kind of things did the manager squirrel away in these things? Was he a hoarder who never threw anything away? It looked like it. These boxes were sinking into each other from neglect. She resisted her desire until she saw a piece of white fabric peeking out from a tear.

The material was a fine lace, slightly faded with time, but still pure enough to be called white. She thought it was some kind of cloth and imagined using it with the table to make a more proper setting. She opened the box and pulled it out, but it wasn't just a cloth, it was a dress. A white summer dress that fell to her ankles. It belonged to a much taller woman, and she mused, from a more distant time.

She heard groaning from the stairs. She stuffed the dress into the box and headed through the door to find Futaro struggling up the stairs with his prize. "Is that a space heater?"

"Yeah," he groaned, "Can you...gimme a hand with this?"

She took one side and together the maneuvered it to the table, sliding it underneath so it'd warm their legs. As he plugged it in to the wall socket by the door, she asked, "Where'd you get that?"

"We have a couple in storage."

"Did you ask the manager this time?"

"It's still in his store, he won't care," he paused, "I think." He plugged it in and grinned, "Aha, let there be heat."

But one victory came with a sacrifice. Their food had gone cold again. Her first bite was like tasting leftovers straight from the fridge. She tasted it. Futaro tasted it. She wouldn't have said a word and lingered through it, but Futaro grumbled and grabbed her food, disappearing down the stairs in a cloud of frustration. So she waited for him. Again. At least she was warm this time.

He returned triumphant with twice-microwaved pasta, a dating delicacy. At last the two could enjoy their meal in relative peace. A night screaming through the city let them forget their hunger, but it returned with interest as soon as they smelled the sultry steam as potent as a drug. Nino ate in her normal refined manner, habits beat hungry instinct, but she wondered if Futaro was intentionally slowing his pace for her.

Futaro blew on a fork full of lasagna and offered it to her, "Want to try?"

Nino blushed and was embarrassed at the thought of being fed with the same fork. It was different when she was on the receiving end, had this been how he felt on the rooftop? She couldn't refuse and opened her mouth, letting him navigate it into her mouth. It was good and she found herself wishing their orders were switched. Maybe hers was just better fresh. She offered him a bite of her shrimp pasta and he opened his mouth obediently, only the noodles slid out from her fork and fell into the table mesh.

"Dammit," Nino cursed.

"I got it," Futaro said. He took napkins from the bag and cleaned the spilled food.

Nino blushed at her mistake, saying, "Thank you." She saw tiny white drops on the floor, sauce that hadn't been saved. At least it was on the floor and not on their clothes, she didn't know how she'd bear the shame of ruining her, or his clothes. Those might be the only nice ones he had.

She tried again as Futaro looked on hesitantly, she was determined to get it right. She wrapped the noodles tightly around the shrimp to avoid spilling and crossed the table, slipping it between his lips. He chewed, swallowed, and said, "It's good."

His response felt straight from a novel. A corny, predictable novel doomed to the bargain bin. It felt like they were going through the motions of a date without the natural spark. It was awkward and clumsy. She wanted it to flow like the romance she saw in dramas with her sisters, the way she always imagined her first date would be. But they were not trained to practice joy on command, they had no script to guide them through the awkward pauses. They only had themselves and what they brought with them. And she wondered if this was all Futaro had.

They finished their meals and Futaro tried to start a conversation, "So, how was it?"

Was he asking about the date or the food? She chose the safe answer, for now, "Not bad, your mom has good taste." Would've been better fresh, though. Eating microwaved shrimp was like chewing rigor mortis.

Futaro smiled with relief, then said, "Yeah, she did."

"I don't remember her at the hot springs. Why couldn't she come?"

"She's dead."

"Oh," Nino said, feeling like she'd walked straight into a glass door. "I didn't know."

"It happened a long time ago," he began, then continued as if she'd asked for their life story. "It must have been, ah, about eight years ago. I remember my mom started complaining about this pain in her back. Dad took her to the hospital for a test, then more tests, and then that was our life, one test after another. We switched between hospitals and doctors from one treatment to the next, trying to find something that would work. In the end, it just delayed the inevitable, and two years later, she was gone." Futaro scratched his nose and said, "If you ever wondered how my family fell into debt, that's how."

Nino listened and tried to keep her awkward feeling from rising to her face. It felt like she'd stepped into a dark room marked off-limits and she couldn't find her way out. "So, what was it?"

"Huh?"

"Her illness?"

"Lung cancer."

"So, she smoked?"

"No, just chance," Futaro said. Then he looked at her expectantly, like a test, "So, what happened to your mom?"

She almost berated him for asking that question. Futaro was a brilliant linguist and knew how to maneuver every word into its place. But he lacked the cultural sense to know how the end sentence would sound. His mom was dead, so he said so. He didn't soften it with kinder, more date-appropriate phrases, he was blunt as a bar graph at an investor conference dipping down into the red. And he had no sense that he just knocked on a bank vault asking for treasure. So she responded like any good bank manager would.

"I don't want to talk about that."

"Oh. Okay."

She waited for him to continue like a man in a maze running into a dead end. When he didn't, she imagined that same man pulling out his map to figure out which direction to try next. But Futaro looked off to the evening streets humming with weekenders seeking relief from the work week. Neither said anything and the silence between them echoed like strikes at a baseball game.

Nino glared at Futaro as if stares could power action. They could, but hers didn't. Futaro remained blissfully unaware of her as he pondered whatever was running through his mind. Nino sighed and got up, "I need to use the bathroom."

She lied, she just wanted to get away from their silence and enter her own. She lost herself in the piles of boxes that looked abandoned, as if someone packed away their entire life for a move and then just forgot. That was how she wanted to feel about this night.

Where was the prince of her dreams? Where was the fluttering of her heart? They were lost like the memory of her first date as it should have been. She had hoped that when they finally sat down, they might recover a fragment of the date as she imagined it, full of warm smiles and easy conversation.

Futaro was her prince, this she knew. But for the first time she asked herself why. What about this introverted academic made her heart sing? She, a girl who wanted to be swept off her feet by her knight in shining armor, her glorious prince charming, loved a man who could barely move a table on his own. She wanted to be called beautiful, charming, and wonderful by a man with hard, determined eyes that only softened when they looked at her. Yet she loved a man who's language was technical as a user manual and stripped of romance; a man seemingly ignorant of her womanly graces, as if he wiped his sexual appetite from his brain to make room for new, geekier programming.

Was this man really her prince?

She wanted him to be. She wanted him to soften like a glacier melting into a warm sea that would carry her into the sunset of love. Why wasn't he even trying? She went through all this effort to impress him, and for what? Driving from restaurant to restaurant before winding up at their workplace among boxes of dusty crap.

She wandered through the abandoned things, descending down this rabbit hole. If something hadn't caught her eye, things might have gone very differently that night. But something did. It was an old photo on a desk, it was facing down among piles of papers that looked like they'd been blown into place by a hurricane. Only these papers were recent, they looked like they dealt with the restaurant's finances. The manager used this desk regularly. She turned the picture frame upright and looked into the past, a younger manager who still had youth in his eyes to one side, and on the other was a woman wearing the white dress from before. His arm was around her and she smiled like...Nino realized that's how she wanted to smile tonight. Nino wondered where she was now. She wasn't here. Gone.

And she realized this could be her, or rather, this could be Futaro. He would grow up, move on, without her. And this is where she would stay, with all other forgotten things.

And she hated it. She slammed the picture back down and refused to consider it. She would not be forgotten like her! She wanted to be there beside him. And she was angry because she still didn't know why! He was nothing like the prince of her dreams! So why did the thought of him leaving infuriate her!?

"Nino?" She turned, Futaro was standing between a broken bike and a faux Christmas tree. "I heard something crash."

He came for her. Just like he always did. Just like, she hoped, he always would. That's what princes did for their princesses. But hasn't he always been chasing her, even from the beginning? From the day they met, when he struggled to bring her and her sisters to the study table. At first, it was for money. Then it was for the five of them. Now, it was for her. Just for her. After all her resistance and sabotage, he still kept coming for her.

And as she looked at Futaro, she saw the hint of uncertainty he tried to hide behind abrasive eyes. The unanswered questions were consuming him. Yet he didn't stop trying. This entire night, he'd never given up, even when things kept falling apart and doors slammed in his face, he tried to make their date a success. And Nino realized she hadn't, she simply expected it to be. She was still resisting.

What had she done for their date? She prettied herself and waited to be taken away. That's what she was supposed to do, wasn't it? The guy took the girl out, that's how dating worked. So she left everything else to him, all the preparation, the planning, the paying, that was his responsibility. Hadn't they been at their strongest tonight when they faced their manager together? She burned brightly for a moment to save their date, but expected it to come from him the moment it resumed. It was his job to map their journey from start to finish and then navigate their date like a captain on the high seas. It was her job to follow like a beautiful shadow. Only now she realize how silly that sounded. And not just because of the gender dynamic, but because of who loved who.

She loved Futaro, and he knew it. She'd told him repeatedly, so often she risked coming off like an irritating song stuck on repeat. So what did he have left to prove? She was the one who promised to make him notice her, and she had, right up until their date. That was where he was supposed to take the reins and guide her somewhere special. But Futaro wasn't in love with her, not yet. He was wandering his own feelings that were just starting to grow. How could he guide anyone when he was still lost himself? Shouldn't she be reaching out to him, and show him the way to her?

"Nino?"

He'd really given this his all. And as turbulent a night as they had, he was still reaching out to her. That's why he latched onto his mother, her mother, as a link they might share. He was trying desperately to find something to connect them. But what he found made her shut herself up like a fortress under assault from a messenger. Why did it have to be their mothers? It could be anything else, but that was a topic she wanted to keep locked away. And she could if she wanted to. All it would cost her was her chance with him.

Futaro reached out to her with something personal, something she doubted he shared with anyone else, let alone her sisters. Now it was her turn to reach back. If she didn't, she knew he would drift away. There would be no second date, she wouldn't have another chance. Futaro had opened a part of himself he never showed to anyone, a vulnerability, a way to his heart. If she rejected it, if she couldn't do the same, what was she doing playing with love?

It would be so much easier if everything were a dream. Her gallant prince escorting her on a night written in the stars. But maybe love couldn't be easy. Here was her prince. He wasn't strong...no, he was. He had the strength to bare himself before her. And she couldn't just be his pretty sidepiece. He wanted a partner. Did she have the same strength as him?

She decided she did.

"Do you want to know why I hated you?" she asked.

Futaro blinked, "What?"

"Why I hated you as our tutor?"

Futaro bit his lip and said, "Sure."

"Our mom was a superhero. She could do anything."

Futaro said, 'It's okay, you don't have to talk about this."

Nino continued, "We used to joke that the sun rose and set because she told it to, but a part of us thought it was true. She was amazing, she took care of the five of us all on her own. But I don't think people are made to deal with challenges like that, and it wore her down too quickly, like she was a candle burning too brightly. So when she got ill, the five of us started growing up and taking over. I took over cooking and housework. Ichika started watched over us like a hen. Yotsuba tried to be our joy, and Itsuki acted like our moral compass.

"But you know how our mother was a teacher? She specialized in teaching high school, but she took charge of our education too. She tutored us every day after school before dinner. And when she, died, we didn't have anyone to take her place. Miku tried, she did her best, but she couldn't do it. So we had no one to fill that place, and without her, studying was too painful. So we stopped," she paused, then finished, "until you showed up."

She didn't need to say anything more. She took a moment to admire him filling in the pieces, his eyes hardening and shifting with each neural connection. Maybe now he'd understand how much it should mean to him that they, that she, accepted him taking over the last of their mother's roles.

And then she spoke again, for in opening her heart she found there was more inside her pressing to be free, to be known to him. These were things that she never told anyone, not even her sisters. These secrets were hers, her most private possession. But she wanted him to know. She wanted him to see her as she was and to accept her, and so they came out with the rest.

"I think my mom hated me."

Futaro blanked, "She what?"

Nino continued, "Maybe not hate. But she resented me, I could see it in the way she looked at me sometimes."

"Why would she do that? You said she gave everything for the five of you."

"She did. For the five of us. I think that's the problem. See, our mother didn't do everything right. She didn't mean to get pregnant, it was an accident. We were accidents. She didn't go to a doctor after she got pregnant either, she didn't think prenatal care was necessary. So she thought growing as large as she did was normal. So when the time comes, she gives birth to Ichika and she thinks it's done, but the doctors say there's more. I come out next and she knows the life she imagined for herself is gone, and it's going to be at least twice as hard as it should be. Then Miku comes out, then Yotsuba, and finally Itsuki is the sign that it's over for her. I think she loved Itsuki the most, because she was the sign of the end. But I was the first sign that her life would never be the same. I don't think she meant to hold it against me, but sometimes I'd catch her glaring at me like she was thinking about it, like if I'd never followed Ichika, her life wouldn't be as hard as it was. She loved me, I know she did, but I think you can love and resent someone at the same time."

She tilted her head down and looked at her shoes. She didn't cry, she's lived with this long enough not to cry anymore, but she felt naked and warm under his gaze and she didn't want to see what he was thinking of her. She set her arm across her stomach and hugged herself to fight the pressure in her gut. Two leather shoes fell into her periphery, she looked up and saw Futaro looking at her uncertainly. He was looking for the right words to say, but he still hadn't learned how to say them. This was the look she'd been waiting for, the one he'd been waiting to give. Futaro could never fall for the physical, she would never have won his affection with all the time in the world in front of a vanity. It was this spark, these peeks inside of her that made him see her as anything more than just another girl.

He took her hand, squeezed it, and asked, "Do you want to eat cake with me?"

Somehow those were the right words, because she knew he was happy she'd been born. She nodded and followed him back to the table. He took the fork and fed her one bite, then took one for himself. Nino held his free hand in hers like a trophy. His fingers caressed the back of her hand that felt like matchsticks striking flames.

Nino felt welcome and accepted after revealing such a deep part of herself, and she wanted to know more about him, to glance inside him as he'd done to her. She asked, "Was your mother's treatment worth it?"

Futaro finished chewing and asked, "You mean our debt?"

"That, and everything else."

Futaro pondered her question for a moment, feeding her two bites before answering, "We got two more years together. Raiha can remember our mom. That's worth any price."

She agreed, and she felt the same about them.

They lingered a while after finishing the cake and enjoyed the quieting evening air. His hand stayed warm in hers against the chill. Then Nino asked, "Walk me home?"

Futaro said, "Yeah."

They moved the table and chairs back inside and headed down the stairs. They passed the kitchen and saw the manager inside cleaning baking pans. He didn't notice them as they passed. He looked content in his place.

The walk home was memorable and short. But it was the most pleasant transit that night. They stopped a short distance from her home in case her sisters stepped outside. Someday he'd escort her straight to her door, she hoped.

Futaro said, "This is it, then."

Nino nodded, "I had a good time."

She meant it, but Futaro looked like he didn't believe her, "Ah, good then, I-" Then Nino broke all the rules and demanded her intentions be known. She rushed forward, leaned to his side and kissed him on his ice-cold cheek. She leaned back as quickly as she'd come and burned at her burst of daring. She watched him work through what just happened like a computer rebooting as blood rushed to warm his frozen cheeks.

Nino dared to ask, "Walk me home tomorrow after work?" Will we be together like this again? She'd understand if he said no, the date must have gone horribly from his perspective. But she wanted this to continue, it all came down to this.

Her heart danced when she heard, "Okay."

She waltzed away, "So then, see you at work."

"Yeah, and, after too."

After. They would have an after. She'd call that a success She smiled and turned away, heading towards home. But she couldn't resist checking over her shoulder just once. She was disappointed to see he was already walking away, but her night was complete when he reached up and touched the skin she had kissed. From now, through her sisters' subtle questions as she walked through their door, and through when she fell asleep, she'd hold that memory in her heart.

_**~Futaro~**_

It wouldn't go away. The tingling on his cheek was a sparkler that should have died long ago but continued burning through the night. It was like his muscles were squirming with excitement over the memory, or was this all in his head? If so, why couldn't he control it? Did he even want to? As with so many Nino-centric questions, this remained unanswered by the time he got home.

"I'm back," he announced.

His father was slipping into sweats and said, "I beat you tonight."

"I'm starting to see a pattern. Where's Raiha."

"Good question. You didn't see her?"

"No, I just got home. Why would I?"

"She's better than I thought. Raiha!"

A burst of unconstrained energy dressed in black shot past him and saluted, "Right here, dad!"

Futaro asked, "Where did you come from?"

He was ignored, their father called, "Raiha, report!"

"Their date was a complete disaster!"

"You were following us!?"

"Yup! All night long."

"How!?"

"Memorized your dating notecards. They were very thorough, big brother."

"Why is that the only thing you're good at studying!?"

Father interrupted, "Raiha, stay focused and report!"

"Right! It was a disaster right from the start, especially when he got caught stealing his boss's bike, but big brother managed to turn everything around by the end! He walked her home and she kissed him on the cheek!"

Futaro scowled, "Raiha, you'll make a great spy someday."

Father nodded approvingly, "Excellent work Raiha, I knew I could count on you. Now go take a bath, you earned first dibs."

"Good, keeping up with you two on wheels was not easy." Raiha grinned and headed to the bathroom.

Futaro fumed, "Wasn't there something about no secrets?"

"No secrets, just things a father must do with his daughter."

Futaro said, "Either I need to be home more or you need to get another job, because you're a horrible influence on her."

His father shrugged, "She'll grow out of it. You did at her age." He grabbed a ceramic bottle in the kitchen and set it in the microwave as he said, "So, went well?"

"Not really, but I guess it went okay."

"You seeing her again?"

"I think so. She asked me to walk her home tomorrow."

"Do you want to?"

"I said I would."

"That isn't what I asked."

Futaro remembered the softness in her eyes as she told him about her mother, and the warmth of her lips on his cheek, and said, "I think so."

"Then it went well."

"It didn't start well."

"What first date has ever gone well all the way through? You're kids, you're allowed a bit of fumbling." He pulled out the bottle and brought it with two small matching cups to the table. He motioned for Futaro to sit, "Come."

Futaro sat and said, "I thought you stopped drinking."

"Only on special occasions."

"I'm in high school."

"Rules are made to be broken."

"No, they aren't."

"Your manager think the same?"

Futaro fumed, "That was a mistake."

His father pushed one of the glasses his way, "Here, live with me. This is a big day."

"Why? Because I had a date?"

"Yes, and because I kept my promise to your mother."

"What promise?"

"Something she made me promise before she died. I told her I'd see you two were raised right, and that you had everything you needed to live your lives. I promised her, because she couldn't do it herself. I was worried about you, until tonight." He raised his glass with a knowing smile, "Now, I think you'll be alright."

"All because I went on a date?"

"No, because you're looking for something you want. I don't care if you marry or stay a bachelor until the day you die, I don't care if you have zero kids or a hundred. All I want is for you to find the life you want to live. You finally started looking, and I know you'll find it. You always were a smart kid, you'll be a smart man too." He held out his glass, "Can you drink to that?"

In that moment Futaro didn't know if he could love Nino or not, but he knew he loved this brash, gregarious man that was his father. He loved his family. Maybe he'd love more someday. Maybe it'd be her. He wanted to find out. He raised his glass, "I'll give it a try."

"Cheers to you, son," he said and they drank. Futaro tilted the glass back and tasted the cheap, dry liquid slithering down his throat like a rope on fire. He gagged halfway through and fought for breath. His father finished his glass and laughed.

**A/N**

From the beginning, it's bugged me how little impact mothers seem to have had on the manga. Mothers are deceased in a lot of fiction, and despite the author enjoying subverting certain tropes, this one stands firm. So I wanted to explore their mothers and the impact they've had on their children and families, at least in their childrens' eyes.

Of course I do this right as the flashback chapter 87 comes out, delving further into their past. I'll remind readers of this story that this story diverges from manga chapter 73 onward, everything beyond that point does not apply to this story unless I specifically include it.

I received a fair bit of feedback regarding this story's humor that really ran the spectrum. Humor really is a subjective thing. Some have enjoyed my attempts at comedy, others found minor enjoyment, or none at all, and even cringe at times. I might have misstated my intention. I'm not going full comedy anywhere (except maybe Raiha, I'm clearly going wild with her character and I'm loving it), when I say comedy I'm referring to witty dialogue exchanges that I personally find hilarious (once again, Raiha, chapter 2). In any case, humor is not the focus, romance, family and friendship are, and I'm happy that most of you think those areas are on point.

My original estimate of one week for this chapter was generous, I ended up needing another to finish it. For good reason, this is the longest chapter so far. Thank you everyone for your patience, two weeks is going to be the schedule for a while longer. I haven't responded to any reviews this last chapter due to how busy I've been, so I apologize to anyone who expected a response.

Part of the next chapter is already drafted and I expect to publish again in two weeks. Please review and I'll update soon.

Chapter published May 30th, 2019.


	11. Role Reversals

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 11**

**Role Reversals**

_**~Futaro~**_

He was going to die. This wasn't hyperbole, he was ready to fall into his grave.

There had to be a limit to how many times a heart could beat per minute and he was sure he passed that five minutes ago. And had the city suddenly risen through the stratosphere? No? So where had all the air gone? He must have breathed it all. Sorry humanity, it was Futaro, not global warming, that doomed the atmosphere!

But if that were true, where was his tormentor getting her supply?

"Alright, push on through! Come on, that all you got? I know you got another ten blocks in ya! Let's do it!"

Yotsuba's happy commands clipped his heels like the overseer's whip pushing him through wind that refused to be breathed. His legs flexed like dry pistons begging for oil, but too afraid of their overseer to halt. She was an angel and devil working in a single voice, and neither were on his side.

"I. Can't. Go. On," Futaro gasped.

Yotsuba sprinted ahead and turned, running backwards while saying, "Oh yes you can! Anymore talk like that and it's another kilometer just to prove you wrong, mister!"

"You monster!" he moaned, then regretted releasing so much precious oxygen.

"Keep it up! Push through and finish strong!" Yotsuba cheered, persecuted, and led on. Futaro whined and ordered his weary legs to follow. Damn him for trying to better himself!

His body was a sack of meat to keep his brain sustained. Head was the master, body the slave. But now he tried to pull the body up and raise it as a partner, and for all its years of neglect, it rebelled! It afflicted him with agony for his disdain. And he had no choice but to bear it, because Yotsuba wouldn't let him do anything else. There was no going back now. She wouldn't let him without at least another kilometer.

And what a kilometer it was. The longest, hardest, sweatiest of his life. He collapsed on a bench next to a waiting Yotsuba, who immediately hauled him to his feet, "No sitting."

"But I wanna," he whined.

"Hands up! Lungs open! Walk it off!"

Why were his arms so heavy? His legs did the work, why did his arms have to hurt too!? It didn't make sense! It wasn't fair! He whined and lifted them under Yotsuba's demanding glare, then walked along the river like a dead man to the gallows.

Yotsuba calmly walked beside him. Her sports clothes were damp with light sweat, as if she'd splashed herself accidentally in the sink, while he looked like he'd stepped into a downpour. She grinned, "Hurts good, doesn't it?"

Futaro found some breath and said, "Pain is the body saying, 'avoid'!"

"The body doesn't know what' s good for it. You'll learn, you're good at learning, right?"

"Is this revenge for all my assignments?"

"No way! Why would I ever do that?"

"If you were anyone else, I'd say you were being facetious."

"What's that mean?"

"It means-"

"Wait, nevermind! No tutoring! I'm the tutor now!"

Futaro glared, "Alright, fine."

"Good!" Yotsuba nodded.

Futaro waited a moment, then said, "It means teasingly."

"Waaaa! I told you not to explain!"

"Unlike you, I am that petty." Futaro sighed, "Can I stop now?"

Yotsuba sighed, "I suppose."

Futaro slumped over the railing, his sweat falling into the river. He heard Yotsuba shuffling behind him and turned to see her removing something tied to her ankles with velcro. "Huh? What're those?"

"Weights."

"You ran with weights?"

"Yeah."

"And you're not even tired."

"No, I'll bring heavier ones next time."

Futaro rolled his eyes and stared into the river. Yotsuba joined him, "Not bad, Sprints. Not bad."

"Sprints?"

"You like it? It just came to me."

"Why Sprints though?"

"Very good over short distances." Ah Yotsuba, always looking on the bright side.

Futaro felt calmer now that his heart no longer threatened to explode, "How's Nino at home?"

Yotsuba grinned, "You mean after your dates?"

"What else?"

Yotsuba smirked, "I don't wanna tell you."

"Yes you do."

"Okay, I do!" She pouted, "How come I can never facetious you back?"

"You're using it wrong."

"Really? Darnit. Well you know what I mean."

He shrugged, "I'm good at reading open books."

"Where have you taken her, anyways?"

"Let's see, last Saturday night was the restaurant-"

"The disaster?"

"Yes. That. Then Sunday we walked home together after work, and Monday we went to the park. And yesterday we went to the arcade-"

"Oh, is that where she got Mr. Nuzzles?"

"Is that what she calls the little bunny plushie I won for her?" Her first stop in the arcade had been the prize booth. She pointed to the bunny and told him to win it for her, and, smiling innocently, said that she believed in him. An aspiring boyfriend couldn't say no to that. In truth, she hadn't expected anything, she just wanted to see him try for her. She hadn't expected him to be genuinely good at these silly games. All those times splurging with Raiha were worth it when he handed the little bunny to a genuinely surprised Nino.

"Yes. She hid it in the closet, but Miku found it and asked her about it."

"Why was she hiding it?"

"The secret that I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Oh, so the cat's out of the bag?"

"No, at least not for Miku. I think Ichika and Itsuki suspect something, well, mainly Ichika. She's been asking Nino where she's going by herself lately."

"And Nino-"

"Lies."

"Oh," Futaro groaned.

Yotsuba patted his shoulder, too roughly, then stopped because of the sweat, which she wiped on her shorts, "Cheer up. Back to your question: nothing really changed, but Nino started humming when she cooks."

"Humming."

"Happy humming! You know, like she has happy thoughts on the mind. It's like someone turned her happy gauge up a few notches."

Futaro said, "Wish I could see that."

Yotsuba saluted, "Until then, I'll be your inside source!"

"You make it sound like you're on my side."

"I promised, didn't I?"

The angel won out over the devil and Yotsuba seemed to shine. Futaro grinned and pushed himself away from the railing, "Yeah, I remember," he looked to Yotsuba, "I have a favor to ask."

"Go ahead."

"I'm coming over tonight after dinner."

"And?"

"Nino says Ichika and Miku already made plans. Can you take Itsuki out for the night?"

"So you can be alone in my house with my sister?"

"Yes. And I realize how suspicious that must sound."

"Yup! And leave it to me!" Yotsuba pushed herself off the railing and thrust an arm in the air, "Alright, back to it! Time for burpees!"

"What's a burpee?"

He would learn, the devil had returned.

_**~Nino~**_

Flour, milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt, oils, lemon juice, almond extract, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda. Two baking pans, cooking spray, mixing bowls, whisker, frosting bag. All carefully assembled and locked out of sight, ready for tonight. If only they could stay that way a bit longer, she'd be home free.

Ichika had skipped class today to get ready for her premiere. Her handlers wanted her to rehearse some canned phrases for the press in case they pulled her aside on the carpet. Miku left first after dinner, allegedly to meet with Futaro at the library. Nino knew it was a lie, Ichika didn't. She felt sly saying goodbye to her after dinner, knowing who Futaro would really spend the night with. Itsuki and Yotsuba followed shortly after. Nino had been brainstorming an excuse to get them out of the house. Yotsuba was her savior when she announced she wanted a night at the cake shop. Itsuki was delighted and decided to tag along. Yotsuba asked Nino, but didn't push when she said she wanted to stay at home.

She wanted to celebrate when she heard the door click shut one final time. At last, the house was hers! But there was no time for that, she had an evening to assemble. She quickly changed out of her bland t-shirt and shorts and into a pair of the same, albeit ones that were more flattering to her figure. Futaro might hold as much interest in the feminine form as he did in physical fitness, but she couldn't wear the same homely outfit around her...boyfriend? Were they there yet? Probably not, which was even more reason to dress to impress.

She sorted what minor messes her sisters made and reapplied her makeup. She was less generous with her blush tonight, she wanted a more natural appearance at home. She finished as the clock struck seven, the doorbell ringing in time with the clock. Futaro was a man of punctuality, he found no fashion in being late.

"Coming!" she called. She preened her hair behind her ears and opened the door. Futaro arrived wearing a black button-down shirt and jeans. At least it wasn't his school uniform, he was trying. "Come in, everyone's gone."

He looked her over like a line worker checking a product for defects, "You look good."

"Thanks," she said, wondering who instructed him to comment. She welcomed him inside as he took off his shoes. But as she stepped into the hall she noticed their drying rack in the living room. Their full drying rack. Full of their drying underwear.

"Stop right there! Turn around!"

Futaro blinked, "What-"

"No questions! Just do it!" Futaro sighed and did as she said. Nino stormed the drying rack and ripped off all the damp panties and bras and marched to their bedroom while cradling them like a sleeping child. She tossed them onto her futon without ceremony and returned to the hall. She said, "Alright, you can come here now."

Futaro turned around and glanced at the drying rack, he grumbled, "All that because of underwear?"

Nino blushed like a bleeding tomato, "You saw them!?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"They're private!"

"They're just fabric and wire, what's the big deal?"

"Of course you don't get it," Nino moaned, "Look, just forget it. Forget everything you saw. Please."

Futaro rolled his eyes, "Alright, mind dump complete. Can we move on?"

"Yeah, why do you want me to teach you how to make a cake anyways?"

"Money, what else? The boss will give me a raise if I can work in the kitchen."

"Is it always money with you?"

"This is good news for you, I'm taking five tutoring sessions off your total bill for this."

"Oh, so you're actually counting?"

"Just show me what I'm doing wrong."

"Fine," Nino said as she took out the ingredients, "Show me what you know."

And he showed her alright. It started off fine, but cake was a hard thing to mess up. Take ingredients, measure ingredients, mix ingredients and heat ingredients. It should be simple. And it was, right until Futaro made it anything but.

"What are you doing?" Nino asked as he pulled a bag of artificial sweetener out from his backpack.

"Substituting sugar."

"No."

"It'll work."

"No, this is why it's going to suck."

"Trust me."

Nino sighed, "Fine, keep going." This was his chance to prove himself. He had no idea he'd already doomed his chances like stepping on a landmine. Nino was just waiting for the click.

He finished mixing, then greased the pans and poured in the batter before sliding them into the oven. Then he made the frosting using the same artificial sweetener. She couldn't wait to taste it, comment on it, and trashcan it.

His technique was proficient, the end result a feast for the eyes. But a feast for the stomach? Not so much.

Futaro slouched, "It was going so well."

"No. No it wasn't."

"What'd I do wrong?"

She pointed to the artificial sweetener, "That, right there. Why would you even try to use that?"

"To make a healthier cake."

"To make healthier-what? Futaro, why would you care about that?"

"Because it'd be amazing to have a delicious, low-calorie cake! We'd be famous and the manager would have to give me a raise!"

Nino grabbed Futaro's shoulders and looked him square in the eye as she ruined his dream, "Futaro, listen to me: there is no free lunch, and nobody cares. The customers know cake is unhealthy and they eat it anyways. If they're willing to pay, let them have their guilty pleasure."

Futaro looked squeamish and said, "I really thought it'd work."

He looked so sorrowful she almost felt sorry for him. Almost. "Not every idea can be a winner. You wanna reinvent the cake, master the basics first. Follow the recipe and make the stupid cake right!"

Futaro looked mournfully at the sweetener and sighed, then hardened his eyes like quick-drying concrete, "Alright, let's try again!"

Round two: take, measure, mix, heat. This time Nino was standing beside him each step of the way. His overall technique was solid, she didn't even have to hold his hand, just slap it away whenever he tried knowing better. By the time he had a working batter, she knew this one was a winner. They watched it rise in the oven together, carrying his hopes of a promotion with it. He stacked it, frosted it, and decorated it with a steady hand freed of twitching from a lifetime of careful penmanship. He'd make a good artist if his passions pushed him there.

The cake sat confidently before them. Its maker didn't share its confidence, but she did. She knew cooking, she knew baking, and she knew a good cake when she saw one. He needed to taste it to believe it.

She asked, "Ready to try?"

Futaro nodded, "Let's do it."

She carved a delicate piece and slid it onto the plate. She said, "You first."

He said, "No, you. Tell me what you think."

She shrugged, "Okay."

She took the fork, but right before she punctured the smooth layer of frosting, the door opened.

"I'm home," Miku announced.

Blood makes no noise when it freezes, it courteously keeps itself silent so the ears can pick up every vibration of doom. The pair peeked around the corner, Miku was sitting at the entrance taking off her shoes. Her back was to them. Nino pointed to the bathroom in silent command, Futaro obeyed with equal muteness and quietly slid the door shut behind him.

Nino swallowed her panic and said, "Hey, you're back early. How was the library?"

"Fine."

"And Futaro?"

"It was nice."

"Oh, great. Just great."

"I smell cake."

"Uh, yeah! Yeah, I made a cake. For us."

"Can I please have a piece?"

"Sure! Right here!"

Miku set the plate on the kitchen counter and took a careful bite. She swallowed and said, "It's different."

"I tried something new. You don't like it?"

"No, it's good. Really good."

Nino sighed with relief and she wondered if Futaro heard her. "Good, good to hear."

Nino took another few bites and said, "I'm going to the bathroom."

The God of Fate was not on her side, in fact He was intent on shattering her deception. Nino cried, "Wait, I haven't cleaned yet!"

Miku frowned, "What's up with you? You're being weird."

Nino flinched, "I-it's just, I was about to clean, and I..." she realized nothing could save her, it was all unraveling and she couldn't save it, so she decided to own it, "Okay, wait. There's something I need to tell you."

"It can wait, I need to go. The library bathroom was out of order." Nino could only watch with horror as Miku slipped into the bathroom and shut the door. She waited for the confused calling of his name, for a scream, or any sign of disbelief. She waited seconds that felt like minutes, even hours. But what she heard was the distorted stream of her sister using the toilet, a flush, and running water in the sink. Miku stepped out and asked, "What did you want to say?"

Nino opened her mouth dumbly, finally saying, "I forgot."

Miku said, "It must not have been important. Why's the window open?"

That clever guy, he must have escaped! Fate was back on her side! "For cleaning, remember? That's what I was going to say."

Miku nodded and said, "Alright, it was cold, we should close it soon to save on the heating bill. I'm going to go change." She headed into the bedroom and closed the door.

Nino tore into the bathroom and found the open window that must have been Futaro's escape route. Only now that she saw it did she remember how small it was. A child might squeeze through, but not a man, even a skinny one like Futaro. "How did he do it?" she wondered aloud.

"Nino?"

She turned as the cabinet under the sink opened up and a contortionist slid out to the floor. He groaned, "Ow,"

"Fuu?" Nino blinked, then rushed to his side and hissed, "Quiet! She's in the other room!"

Futaro asked, "But she liked the cake, right?"

"Priorities, Fuu!"

"Right, right. Escape."

"Now's your chance, get up!"

Futaro stretched and looked annoyed, "I got it, lay off." Nino glanced outside to make sure Miku was still in the room, then waved Futaro out. He jaunted to the entrance and quietly put on his shoes, waved goodnight, and made his exit into the night.

Nino huffed at the night time possibilities long gone. She wanted an evening enjoying the fruits of their labor, celebrating success together. Then again, when had the night ever gone right for them? At least they got through it together.

"Nino?" She turned, seeing Miku in the bedroom door. She pointed inside, "Why is our wet underwear on the futon?"

_**~Futaro~**_

The manager chewed on the cake and Futaro's promotion at the same time. Futaro thought that his manager should give up the baking business and make a career playing poker. His aura was that of an enigma trapped in a fog on a moonless night. He could love the cake to death, or despise it so that even the idea of sweets were ruined for him forever, and his expression would be the same.

He took a second bite. This was not a good sign, it meant he couldn't make up his mind with the first. Futaro existed in that gray zone of pass and fail. It was unfamiliar to him, he didn't like it. This was worse than failing, at least then he knew where he stood.

He took a third bite, then a fourth. Was he doing this on purpose to make him sweat? No, the manager's time was precious and limited, like sleep for an actress on a night shoot.

Finally he set down his fork and passed judgment. He looked to Futaro and said, "It's okay. You can work the kitchen."

Futaro didn't hear that. He heard '300 more yen per hour'. Maximizing money for time was all that mattered.

"Did she teach you?"

Futaro blanked, "Huh?"

"Well?"

"Yeah, Nino showed me where I went wrong."

"I should have her start training the newbies."

"Does that come with another raise?"

"I'm not letting you do it. You should be glad you're still here."

As far as segways come, it was as good as any other. Futaro had been waiting for the moment to seize on the subject. Even as the question of Nino seemed to play itself out, he found another in why he still had his job. He asked, "Why am I still here?"

"You're the one who asked to stay late to show me your baking."

"I mean after the bike."

The manager's eyes went wide as if he'd forgotten all about it. Had he? "Ah, that reminds me."

"No way."

"How was dinner on the balcony."

"What? Why are you asking about that?"

"I was thinking about opening up the second floor. Was it romantic?"

"Yes, the musty boxes were particularly captivating."

"Imagine they were roman pillars with candelabras and think again."

"Answer me first, I know you were gonna fire me."

The manager walked through the kitchen with his head in the clouds, "Add a spiral staircase, expand the balcony, add some candles...lots of candles."

"Boss, focus."

"I am. Maybe a violinist. Live music could really draw some crowds...no, too expensive. Maybe a busker?"

"Boss!"

He finally looked at him, as if he'd forgotten Futaro was there. "Ah, what're you still doing here? I'm not paying you overtime. Start in the kitchen on Sunday. No, Saturday. You're working Saturday now too."

"Wait, I-"

"'Night,"

The manager left for his office. Futaro followed. He wanted that answer, this was one of those questions that consumed him. He barged into his office and said, "I asked you a question, why didn't you fire me?"

The manager cocked an eyebrow and set down an unlit cigarette, "Why're you going on about this? Just be glad you're still here."

"Because I can't just go on like nothing happened. I did something stupid and I know you were ready to fire me. But then," Futaro paused, "then you saw me with Nino, and you didn't. You even gave us a place to finish our night. I want to know why."

The manager rolled his eyes and lit his cigarette. Futaro huffed away a steady stream of smoke blown his way. The manager said, "Doesn't matter."

"It does to me."

"So? Stop caring."

"I can't just-"

"Fine. Want a reason? You've stuck it out here longer than most. Can't let a halfway decent worker go that easily."

"That's not the reason."

"It's a reason."

"But not _the_ reason!"

"Uesugi," he began, "Focus on something that actually matters. Isn't Nakano waiting for you outside?"

Futaro paled, he'd actually forgotten. Had she heard anything? No, she'd storm straight in if she had. "I didn't..."

The manager got up and walked around him. "So what're you doing here? If I had someone important waiting on me, I wouldn't be hanging around with some geezer."

But didn't he? Or hadn't he, at least once? What was that picture Nino found on the desk? Who was that younger woman in the white dress with a younger manager? Another question, one that suddenly became more important than employment, or Nino. It needed to be answered. So he asked, "I thought you did. Or, the woman in the picture?"

The manager looked amused, "Oh, you saw that up there?"

"Yeah, I thought you were single-"

"I am."

"Then who was-"

"No one now."

"Oh," Futaro replied dumbly, "What happened?" He realized he was crossing several lines only after he asked the question, but it was too late, his curiosity was unstoppable as a bullet train.

The manager shrugged and turned away, walking down the hall as he said, "Something important came up."

"What's that?"

The manager stopped but didn't answer him, so he asked again. The silence annoyed him and he was ready to storm up to the manager and demand an answer. Then the manager reached for the wall and touched it, not like it was any wall, but with such reserved gentleness he might have been touching a newborn's cheek. His fingers traced the indents in the paint, following their familiar path down the wall like little rivers running together. He pressed his palm flat against the wall and felt it, almost melded with it.

He said, "You still care about the reason?"

"Yes."

"People have done stupider things for women. Good enough?"

"I don't get it."

"Maybe you'll get this, then: Choose what's important to you before someone else chooses for you." The manager waved and returned to the kitchen, reminding Futaro again that he wasn't getting paid anymore overtime for sticking around.

Futaro thought the manager should stick to baking. Who was he to break into lecture about...what was he even talking about? The manager had a strange way of speaking, like he was water circling a drain but never quite reaching the point. Why did some people speak in riddles instead of plain Japanese? It's as if they wanted to build a roller coaster out of words, only their language lacked any structural support! And yet his mind couldn't leave this new puzzle unsolved, so it rode the words hoping to glimpse their conclusion.

He mulled on this as he gathered his things in the employee lounge. He changed out of his work clothes and walked out the back door into the frigid air. He rounded the corner of the cake shop and looked inside. Nino was sitting on the counter.

Oh. He forgot. She was waiting for him. And then it made sense.

Nino stayed long past her shift for him, so he could test and walk her home. And he forgot she was there, because he found another question. Questions. She might wait for him again, or she might not. How would he feel if he walked out and she wasn't there? How would she feel if she waited all night only to find he'd left without her? Both thoughts chewed his insides more sharply than he expected.

He was used to wandering wherever the next question took him, like the world's best paper plane soaring on the wind. He was untethered to the earth and worldly attachments save his family, his home base, which was always there for him. Family couldn't be cut. But Nino could. Either she would follow for as long as she could, or one day he'd look back and find her gone, drifting away.

He was no longer free to wander as he once was. This is what it was to travel with another, to open your life up to journey with someone else. His life was indefinitely more limited than before. And yet, as he asked himself if that meant he wanted to end this with Nino, he didn't. Because there was something in that narrower space, in this limitation, that enticed him, as it entices all who begin to understand the rapture of love. It was a focusing of his world, a subtle blinding of the superfluous to what could be important, special. His manager had faced that same choice once, and he narrowed his world to his little shop. One day he'd have to make that choice too. But for now he still had time to decide if this was a world he wanted to live in, a world endlessly held back by a woman's hand. This woman's hand.

He walked in the shop. Nino turned from her phone, looking confused, "What're you doing over there?"

"Walked out the back. Old habit."

Nino rolled her eyes and locked her screen. Futaro caught the colorful game she'd been playing to pass the time. He'd sent her a link to a flashcards website and never seen her use it once. She asked, "How'd it go?"

He gave a thumbs up, "Pass."

"Thank your teacher."

"No praise?"

"Praise where it's due first."

"Fine, thank you for showing me how."

"You're welcome, and congratulations my apprentice."

"I'm going to start calling you that at tutoring."

"Absolutely not." She slipped her purse onto her shoulder and said, sounding annoyed, "Walk me home, it's late and I want a nice bath before bed."

The narrow path sounded inviting with her, more than the freedom of wandering the city alone. "I'm glad you waited."

"You should be! Do you know how boring it was waiting for you? I still have homework to finish!"

He wanted to be upset that she hadn't thought to do it while waiting, but he was just happy she was thinking about homework at all. Baby steps of progress. Baby steps they'd taken together, ones he wanted to keep taking for a while longer.

From time to time, Futaro was struck by a truly ridiculous thought. These were disturbances in communications, blips on the radar, anomalies proving his thought process still wasn't perfect. He was suddenly taken by one of these thoughts. He recognized it as laughable, a waste of time, but with Nino, it didn't seem so farfetched anymore.

"Hey, want to take a detour?"

_**~Nino~**_

If a person ever needs to be humbled, here is what they can do: open a tracking app on your phone and just walk through Tokyo. Just pick a place and walk from noon to dusk. Really feel the city under you with each step, soak it in each time you breathe. Then, when you're done, check your progress. See the little line you've walked, then zoom out to see the idea of the megalopolis, and you will see how small you really are. Tokyo really is that enormous, and you can find anything within those limits. Anything. Including everything you'd never want to see.

Nino had a small pool of places she visited after dark. These were reasonable, safe locations in public settings, and she never went alone. These included restaurant districts, shopping plazas, festivals, and maybe, when the mood struck her, a concert. Other places weren't necessary dangerous, just, unwelcoming to young women. Oh, the regulars might love to have their company, but for reasons women will not appreciate, but will always remember.

So when Futaro guided her into a completely new area, a long, narrow street filled with impromptu tents and too many bodies and the smell of burning oil, she was skeptical, and uncomfortable. At one point she nearly lost him in the crowd. But then she saw those twin sprigs of untamed hair leaping through the crowd like a beacon to summon her back. When he saw her he looked visibly relieved, he took her hand and didn't let it go again.

And it made her feel safe. Futaro was a tall twig of a man that looked like he could use a steak or twenty, but something as simple as holding hands so tightly she felt her own pulse in her fingers made her feel safe in this strange new place.

Futaro wandered the tents, reading their selection like he read a textbook, and moving on. He was a hunter looking for prey. He never told her for what, and she didn't ask, it was amusing watching him work.

Then he stopped and locked onto his prize. The stall was run by a plump older woman without a streak of silver in her hair. An assortment of charms, pins and hair clips were sprayed on the table so closely she could barely see the white tablecloth beneath them.

Futaro pointed to something, she couldn't tell what "Do you have another one of these?"

The old woman smiled, a gold tooth flashing in the incandescence. "Sure do, give us a sec." She rummaged through her collection behind the counter and pulled out a purple butterfly pin as small as the nail on her little finger. Futaro picked up its clone from the table and compared them, nodding with satisfaction that they were absolutely alike.

"Are these for your girlfriend here?"

There it was, that pesky label neither of them were ready to say. But someone, a complete stranger, goes out with an assumption and muddles the air. Nino blushed and looked aside, glancing at Futaro out of the corner of her eye. He is completely nonplussed as he lingers on the pins, but he keeps lingering, delaying his response just a moment longer than was natural. Nino saw the gears clicking behind his busy eyes, processing the words and breaking apart their meaning. And when he responds, he blows her away.

"Yes, they are."

And there, just as he dragged her into this unknown place, he drags her across that invisible line. Her heart, the heart of a girlfriend, flutters with life the butterflies on those pins will never know.

Futaro pays for the pins and presents them to her, saying, "Here, try them on."

Nino's mind is a beehive of disbelief at his boldness. A designation this significant deserves discussion! But the way he says it, so nonchalantly as if it were obvious, she loves it. She loves him. But she's still too stunned to form words. She babbles, "Huh?"

"Here, take out your earrings."

"My earrings?" She looks at the pins. All the magic in the air suddenly trips and falls on its face.

"Yes, so you can try these on."

"Fuu, these are pins. Badges."

"So?"

"For shirts."

He pauses, "Not for ears?"

She pointed to the clips in back, "No, not for ears."

Futaro stared curiously at the pins for several moments as his embarrassment overwhelmed him. He mechanically turned to the shopkeep, "Can I get a-"

"All sales are final, dearie."

Futaro mourned for his mistake, for his lighter wallet, and for a ruined moment. Nino mused, this is why men shouldn't just go buying jewelry for their girlfriends without being trained.

Then she grinned to herself. Girlfriend. His girlfriend. That made him hers. Her boyfriend. Futaro was her boyfriend. He accepted their label for them. Now she could take it too.

She removed her earrings and said, "Go on, do it."

Futaro asked, "But aren't they-"

"They're about the same size, just try it."

Nino fidgeted as she felt his fingers gently squeeze her earlobe and slowly linee up the sharpened tip with the hole. He missed and poked her, she yelped and screamed, "Careful!"

"Sorry," he said and tried again. She felt a pinch as he worked it through, but it fit well enough. He did the other and secured the clips on the ends. It felt weird to have her earlobe squeezed from behind. She stepped back and lifted her hair as she asked, "How do I look?"

Futaro said, "Good, I guess."

Nino narrowed her eyes, "I'll give you another chance. How do I look?"

Futaro looked confused, but he learned, "Ah, you look great. They suit you."

Nino flicked her hair and nodded, accepting it. "Good. Now, walk me home."

"Yeah," Futaro said as they left the flea market.

As they left the crowd and walked down the emptying street, Nino asked, "Can you help me with my homework tonight?"

"What? Why?"

"Boyfriends do that kind of thing!"

Futaro blinked, realizing where she was coming from. He blushed, "Ah, do they?"

"Mine better."

Futaro looked around, "Fine, we can find a cafe or something. No caffeine this late though."

As they walked through the streets, Nino played with the butterfly pins in her ears. These gifts were markers broadcasting to the world her status as Futaro's girlfriend, at least to herself. But then she looked to Futaro, her boyfriend. Boyfriend. What a word. She loved it. But she didn't love that he had nothing broadcasting the same. She wanted the world to know he was hers now. But she didn't know what kind of trinket could do that. Futaro was too plain for anything extravagant. But she wanted him to have something that told the world he was hers now.

She blinked and realized how silly she was. She already had just the thing.

She grabbed Futaro's arm and hung on tight, clinging to him like a fireman clings to a pole. Futaro gasped and said, "Nino, what're you doing?"

"What's it look like? Just enjoy it." Futaro scowled and looked away, but Nino caught an unavoidable blush melt his cheeks. She grinned, he was cute when he got shy.

She pulled him close as they walked through the night, a warning to all that this one was hers. Her boyfriend. She was already getting used to it.

**A/N**

One aspect of fanfiction I enjoy is the opportunity to fix things that don't make sense. Futaro's inability to bake a cake of any reasonable taste, is one of them. One with an A in chemistry should be able to combine simple ingredients. The explanation I came up with he tried to be too smart, nuking it to high heaven. Sometimes your partner needs to bring you back to earth.

I've been enjoying the manga and Yotsuba's recent development. I have plans to take her in a different direction than canon, but I'm happy to see her finally being explored. It will make any future re-reads interesting knowing her perspective now, but I'm going to hold off until the series is complete, I'm sure there will be more to appreciate. I'll continue with the next chapter, so please review and get ready for the next update.


	12. Last Calm

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 12**

**Last Calm**

_**~Nino~**_

Consider success! The triumph over adversity and into a new, welcome state of existence! It is what everyone strives for, from the shoemaker in Libya who clings to his father's shop, to the dancer in Russia mastering the grace of a hummingbird on stage, we all struggle in the search for something greater. Or, for something lost. A lover. A childhood dream. A lifestyle.

Their lifestyle.

Nino reflected on all this as she ate a plate of ravioli stuffed with foie gras. She remembered their family trip to Paris three years ago when her culinary world had been shattered one glorious French dish at a time. Who else could make cooked snail and the livers of force-fed ducks taste so divine? But alas the only proper French restaurants in Tokyo were, as of four months ago, prohibitively expensive. But not as recently as today, all thanks to success. But this success wasn't hers, not directly at any rate. She was only lucky enough to share an inseparable bond with its achiever. Today, success belonged to Ichika.

Itsuki finished her caviar toast and sighed, "Wow, I almost forgot fish eggs could taste so good." Yotsuba stuck out her tongue in vain disagreement before taking another bite of her fish.

Nino said, "I know, I think I needed this. I really did."

Ichika swirled a virgin cocktail in her hand as she said, "Does that mean you want seconds?"

Nino shook her hands, "No, I'm bursting already," she said this, but Itsuki picked her menu back up and scanned it like a lawyer checking a contract for the loophole.

Miku said, "It's all thanks to you, Ichika. Congratulations on your movie."

Ichika laughed, "Oh, hush up about that. It only just hit theaters yesterday."

Nino grinned, "And what were they calling it this morning?"

Yotsuba cheered, "A black horse box-office smash!"

"That can hardly be thanks to me. It was only a supporting role."

Itsuki nodded, "A supporting role with a percentage!"

Nino winked, "That's what I'm thankful for."

Ichika demured, "It was a small percentage, nothing much."

Miku said, "Futaro taught us that zeroes do add up." Yotsuba blinked and tried remembering the lesson, missing the joke entirely.

"Anyways, that's only because my agent forced it into my contact. No one up top thought the movie would make any money."

Yotsuba grinned, "So let's thank your agent, then! To your agent!"

Ichika blinked, then grinned, "I'll hear that. To my agent!"

They cheered and finished their glasses. Today would burn a whole in their pocketbook all right, but Ichika's returns promised to drop a comfortable set of digits into their bank account, enough to push them off the razor's edge of frugality. They'd never known a greater reason to celebrate.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Nino might have a thing or two waiting in the wings. She'd bring it up eventually, she thought.

The five followed up two delectable courses with an equally delightful dessert array of tarts, crème brulee, ice cream and coffee. The total bill reflected their meal's grandiosity, and Ichika happily put it on their lowly blue debit card. The same card that made them feel so powerless and weak now carried a greater burden on its balance than it would in an entire week. And it was totally worth it.

But Ichika wasn't done. Today she reasserted herself as the elder sister, the role model, the breadwinner of the second Nakano household! She led them into the department store, Nino's favorite department store, and told them to go wild, but with a limitation. One thing each, no more than fifty-thousand yen. A trifle compared to the time they were armed with their Father's black card. But enough time had distanced that feeling of luxury, and so a five with that many zeroes felt as freeing a baby bird's first flight.

They lost Yotsuba first. A soon as the quintuplets stepped through those sliding doors, Yotsuba flashed away like a bolt of lightning with somewhere to strike. She'd mentioned she needed to get new trainers after running hers into the literal ground. Yotsuba was perhaps the most practical of the five, her money always sank into high-quality versions of everyday goods. Stable running shoes, exercise clothes, gym memberships, and lately, pencils and notebooks. But the soles of her shoes were wearing thin, and even the inserts she splurged on were losing their arches. Her feet would be thanking Ichika tomorrow.

Miku wandered off halfway through the mall, as Miku tended to do. It didn't surprise her sisters at all, Miku was like a phantom disappearing as quietly as sunshine slides along skin. She always wandered back before she was missed as if she could sense her sisters' budding concern like a sixth sense. What did surprise them was how she disappeared into a bookstore instead of an electronics shop. They'd suspected she would purchase a low-end computer for herself now that she could afford one. They wondered what she was looking to find inside with fifty-thousand yen.

And so it was a trio of Ichika, Nino and Itsuki that wandered into the anchor clothing store at the center of the mall. Section after articulately-arranged section of clothing was open for the eyes to wander, each resting under silver letters broadcasting their prestigious designers. Nino ran her fingers along the soothing fabric of silks, nylon, polyester and wool and felt unchained. Her was her grand return! No longer would the sales reps eye her like they would an annoying fly, she had purpose and money burning a hole in her pocket!

Nino moved through the sea of luxury as a captain navigates a swell, feeling the material with her fingers, absorbing them with her eyes and a hunger she'd kept at bay to the point of starving. She could only have one, and it would be the best of the bunch. She discarded anything less than perfect for her without a second thought and moved on.

And then she saw her jewel. An emerald resting in the sands of a desert. It shimmered as if the sun burst through the ceiling to shine on it in a spurt of destiny. Nino picked out the dress, it was as green as an open field after a long spring rain. She could already feel it on her. Perfection. This designer, Broderick Skarr, has made this just for her!

She showed it to her sisters, "What do you think?"

Itsuki paused, and nodded her approval. Ichika asked, "Are you going to try it on?"

Nino checked the size. When it was just right for her, she knew it was to be. "I'll do it right now!"

A sales associate guided her to the dressing room, a large chamber with two chairs and a full length mirror. She took off her long spring dress, starting with the buckles at the waist. She was working it down her shoulders when the door opened. She spun and covered herself, her tongue loading a fireball of curses at her intruder.

"Knock knock," Ichika said, "Mind if I join you?"

Nino turned, her face flushing, "What the, why are you in here?"

Ichika shut the door behind her and held up a long summer dress, white with pink flowers, "I want to see myself in this."

"There's more than one dressing room."

"Well, you know how hard checking the back is."

Ichika smiled sweetly, it was a plaster Nino knew too well. A cheap, brittle mask of honey-sweet enjoyment hiding her cunning older sister's real intent. Ichika was a wonderful actress, but even the greatest Shakespearean lead fumbles against someone who loves them enough to see through the part. But a favor was a favor, and Nino didn't think she was giving anything away. Nino sighed and said, "Fine, give it to me."

She slipped it on and struggled with the buttons in the back. She turned around for Ichika to check and said, "There, any good?"

"No, it's dreadful."

Nino blanked, "Fine, glad we avoided that," she began taking off the dress, fumbling with the buttons in the back.

Ichika's hands slid under hers, "Allow me," she said, her breath close enough that Nino felt it slide around her neck. Nino lifted her hair as Ichika adroitly unhooked the buttons. But then she paused. Suddenly Nino felt fingers enclosing her earlobe and the mark upon it, and in an instant she realized her mistake.

"What is this thing?"

Nino quickly let go of her hair to hide her ears, "Just my earrings, what of it?"

"Oh, those aren't earrings," Ichika grinned knowingly and closed in on Nino, pinning her against a wall like a snake cornering a mouse in a cardboard box. Her hand lifted Nino's hair before she could react and slid along the badge of honor playing as jewelry in her ear. "I noticed something strange about these earlier. Wherever did you get these? These badges belong on shirts, but you'd know that. Whoever got these for you didn't."

"Who says anyone got them for me?" Nino said defensively, struggling to regain her guard.

"So you bought these?"

Nino opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. There were only two things she could say: the truth, or a lie. The first was unprepared as a quiche baking in the oven, the second was unthinkable, lies were the scissors that would snip the bonds of sisterhood she held so dearly. Those bonds were as old as the five of them, they were more priceless than all the treasures of the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt, or all the gold of Fort Knox.

Ichika looked her dead in the eye, searching for any hint of hesitation. Her eyes were predators waiting for the end of the hunt, "Is that what you've been busy with all last week? All those long nights out weren't with friends, were they? Why don't you spill it now, and we can get this over with."

The truth danced on her lips and she considered opening it to the wider world. But just before it leaped into the air, she caged it for a while longer.

"They match my ribbons."

Ichika blinked, "Excuse me?"

Nino blushed, "I wanted to find something that matched my ribbons, and this is what I found. Within our price range, I mean. I planned to get the hooks altered once I had more money."

It wasn't a lie, not really, just part of the truth. The part ignoring who purchased them entirely. Ichika eyed her a moment too long as if testing her for anything that would give the rest away. When the found nothing, she laughed and backed away, looking humbled, "Alright, we can get that after, I guess. You getting that dress?"

Nino nodded and held it up, "If I can try it on already."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm gonna find something else. See you outside."

"Am I trying that one on too?"

Ichika looked confused for a moment, then shook it off, "Ah, no need, you'll be done by then anyways."

Nino breathed again as Ichika left. She felt like she'd dodged a firing squad, at least until Ichika reloaded. That would be soon, she suspected. The rest of the truth would have to come out soon, she knew. But not yet. She wanted a little more time with just the two of them.

She was tested again not five minutes later. She tried on her dress, found it fit as well as destiny ordained, and stepped out of the dressing room and right into Itsuki. Her sister was tapping her arm patiently and turned as she exited. She asked, "What was that about?"

Nino blurted out, "She had me try on a dress for her."

"Not what I was talking about."

"Oh, you heard?"

"Thin walls, you know."

Nino turned away and sneered in frustration, "Why is everyone acting like I'm dealing drugs or something? I haven't done anything wrong."

"So it's nothing? Really?" Itsuki asked earnestly, her eyes silently pleading for Nino's honesty.

Nino sighed and said, "No, there's nothing going on. Nothing to worry about." Not a lie. Not a lie. It was just an opinion, that was true enough for the rest.

Itsuki smiled and nodded, "I thought so. You have been acting strange lately, though."

"These are strange times, sister."

"I think so too," Itsuki said, then held up a blouse, "Shall we?"

They waited at the register for Ichika, who arrived five minutes later with a blue dress of her own. Itsuki showed them her own selection, a pair of black flats with gold buckles on the front. As they were paying, Yotsuba and Miku returned together from their own shopping adventures. Yotsuba was already sporting her new running shoes with pride, its fabric blazing white and lime green like a neon sign in the night. Miku held a wrapped package closely in her arms.

Nino asked, "What'd you get, Miku?"

"A book."

"What kind of book?" Itsuki asked.

"A world almanac."

Nino eyed her sister, "I didn't think you were into that kind of thing."

"I, well, it's not for me. It's for Futaro. His birthday's coming up soon."

The news hit Nino extremely hard, harder than the book Futaro chose for her, harder than the idea of them snuggled up in the library. It made her heart pump furiously and her eyes widen in focus. All because she...well, she didn't know why. At last, she didn't think so. She tried swallowing the nonsense she was feeling, but it only sank deeper into her belly like liquid cement hardening in her guts.

Ichika smiled a line as thin as a border between nations and joined her sisters in praising Miku's consideration, then said to Nino, "Come on, let's get those made into proper earrings."

Nino followed her sisters out of the mall feeling heavier than a ship sinking into the depths. She furiously shoved off the unwarranted weight and pressed on like a soldier of fortune to her prize. What was she feeling uncomfortable for? She'd done the right thing, hadn't she? She told everyone the truth. Technically. But it was the truth. She hadn't lied to anyone, that was what mattered. Where did everyone get off riding her ass about her personal life? Especially Ichika! How long had she kept her budding career from them? No one gave her grief for wanting to keep something all to herself. This was just her turn. But she'd tell them. Eventually. When the time was right. And everyone would move on, as it should be.

Days later, she'd look back to this day and wonder, if she'd told her sisters the whole truth, could things have gone any differently?

_**~Futaro~**_

Futaro deadpanned, "Did you really think I'd forgotten about the mock exams?"

Nino pouted, "No, I just haven't seen you study in a while."

"I have a life outside of dating."

"So I'm competing with your first love?"

"Think of it as sharing space."

"I don't like it."

"You knew what you were getting into."

"I still don't like it."

"You can go home if you don't like it, I need to study."

"I don't like that even more."

"Get used to it then. We've got a long night."

Nino frowned and followed him into the library. Not many libraries were open past dark, and Futaro loved this one because it kept the lights running all night long. Here was an institution putting tax dollars to good use!

Tonight was his first time closing on a Saturday, or working a Saturday shift at all, and chaos had new meaning to Futaro. The cake shop had a line! A line! A line twenty people deep into the street! He could feel their hungry, accusing eyes on him like pokers fresh from the fire every time he checked the waiting list! It was long past ten when he finished closing his first night of hell.

And she'd been there waiting for him. Just like before. This time he met her in the dining room. She took his hand and allowed him to lead her into the night.

Straight to a library. He wondered if she was regretting her chosen companion tonight.

Nino said, "You look terrible, by the way."

"Thanks, Nino."

"That bad, huh?"

"I don't have the vocabulary to describe it."

"Your vocabulary? No, it can't be that bad. You're being a drama queen."

"You can't know. You weren't there."

Nino rolled her eyes, but let it drop. Futaro led her to a table in the corner of the library and grabbed a study guide from the shelf and took his notebook out of his bag. He opened the study guide and drew a circle by the first stamp on the checkout card. Nino asked, "What's that for?"

"To mark the ones I've already used here. The librarians don't mind."

"Ones? Plural?"

"You're surprised?"

"I shouldn't be, should I."

He said, "Why don't you get something to study?"

Nino moaned, "On a Saturday night?"

"You agreed to come along. You knew what you were-"

"Yeah yeah, you said that already. I just don't wanna study right now, don't push me."

Futaro nodded, "Alright, but are you just going to sit there while I study?"

Nino tapped her finger on the table and scanned the library idly. After a minute she said, "Pick a book for me."

"What?"

"Pick one. Something you think I'd like. Oh, and you have to have read it before."

"What kind of books do you usually read?"

"I don't."

"Then how-"

"Use your intuition, braniac."

Futaro sighed and got up, "Alright, wait here."

Nino shook her head and stood, "No, together. What kind of boyfriend leaves his girlfriend alone?"

"The kind that runs her errands?"

"Move it, boyfriend."

There it is again. Twice in two sentences. She really liked that word.

He led her through the stacks and into the romance novels, the only kind he had any certainty she'd enjoy. He tried picking a tasteful one, something without a cover featuring an exposed chest as broad as the Pacific. He wanted to give her something with more depth. Ah, he found the perfect one! Pride and Prejudice, a classic! Can't go wrong with the classics! Well, maybe Ulysses.

Nino was smiling as he browsed for her book. What was up with her? Why was this making her so happy? He almost asked, but thought better of it. Better not ruin her mood with unneeded questions. His father gave him that advice. How well he knew his son, and women too, apparently. He handed her the book and she nodded her approval. She said, "Alright, let's hit the books!"

Here is what Futaro expected: a few scant minutes processing his study guide before receiving a peppering of Nino's question barrage. The woman hated silence like a stain that wouldn't wash away. But the silence carried on like a flagship on course across the sea. Nino buried her nose in her book and read with an enthusiasm that Futaro couldn't help but glance up at, his curiosity in this woman poking him eagerly as an imp with a pitchfork. He'd never seen Nino so engaged with anything in print that wasn't also on a backlit screen. Never.

But over the long minutes, Nino's enthusiasm waned like a rose slowly dying in its vase. She fell into herself as she read on, waiting for the hook in the book her boyfriend hand-picked for her enjoyment. But whether it be due to mismatching tastes, or literature too far above her level, she slowly sunk into defeat. Maybe he should've grabbed one of the paperback bodice-rippers after all, not that he read any himself. Well, it's on her, she did ask for him to pick.

An hour later Nino closed her book, but marked her place. She planned to continue. What a trooper, he thought. Nino pulled out her phone and fiddled with it for a few minutes, but then she excused herself and walked to the stacks.

Futaro found himself lulled into a sense of security in her brief departure, which was just long enough to absorb himself fully in his studies. But then a loud thud stabbed his concentration as Nino slammed a heavy book on the table.

"Pop quiz, Fuu!"

Futaro raised an eyebrow, "You remember we're in a library, not a demolition derby?"

"Don't change the subject. Pop quiz time!"

"Uh-huh. And what's that?"

Nino grinned and opened the book's dust jacket. She pointed at the circle penciled by the first stamp, "Let's see what you remember!"

"You found a textbook I already studied?"

"Yes I did."

"That didn't take long.

"It should have. It didn't." Nino settled into her chair and cleared her throat, "Your review begins-"

"Why is everyone trying to be the tutor lately-"

"Now!"

Nino opened the book with a flourish and let fate decide the page. She slammed down her finger on a random question and read, "What is the...oh," she paused.

"Nino, that's advanced trigonometry. You're not vocalizing that."

"Stupid math," she grumbled and flipped to the Japanese section and tried again. Futaro leaned back and grinned, accepting Nino's challenge and promising himself a tidy triple-digit score. If Nino thought she was going to stump him on test questions he'd already practiced, she didn't know him as well as she thought. He opened his mouth each time in confidence that the answer was ready to leap off his tongue, knowing Nino would never trip him up. But of course, eventually she did. And when Futaro opened his mouth on reflex, thinking the answer was primed for the airwaves, the silence in his throat was oddly unnerving, like arms of a clock falling limp.

Nino waited patiently, "Well?"

One doesn't achieve a perfect score without becoming intimately acquainted with failure. Futaro had climbed mountains of knowledge on ladders of textbooks and scratch paper. Futaro might take occasional pleasure in feigning chagrin at anything less than a perfect score, but it didn't bother him as much as outsiders might think. He recognized his shortcoming, fixed it and moved on. That was study. That was improvement.

So why did his cheeks flush when he couldn't find the answer? Nino stared questioningly as he closed his mouth in defeat. His mind went white as the arctic and all he could see was her looking at him, questioningly. And here he was, falling short right in front of her eyes. He thought he might even panic, but stamped that out with a little willpower. Soon her lips would split into a grin as she realized she had caught him, all part of her game.

Nino shrugged and turned the book, "Here, the answer. Tell me when you're done."

Futaro blinked, was that all there was? No gloating? Nino remained his enigma. He studied the answer and stood before Nino could take the book back. She asked, "What's up?"

"I need another book," he said. He'd peeked at the next few questions and found they all tied together in something he'd completely forgotten, but he remembered where to find the answers. He headed through the stacks to the references, hunting as confidently as a tiger in the wild jungles. This was his territory, he was as comfortable here as he was in his own home. He'd spent many a late night wandering the stacks for the right references. He turned into the row he knew contained his prize, and froze.

They were locked together like headphones left in someone's pocket. His hands slid beneath her blouse, revealing the slightest hint of pink skin that shouldn't be seen outside of a beach in the summer. Her hands lassoed him like a stallion in the wilds and brought his lips crashing into hers, locking them in a mutual struggle neither wanted to escape.

Futaro narrowed his eyes. In the stacks? These volumes deserve better.

Futaro walked right up to them and reached over her head, where the book was resting. The sound of the shifting dust jackets alerted the couple, they jumped like cats after hearing the car backfire.

The guy pointed, "What the hell, man?"

Futaro nonchalantly opened his prize and began reading as he walked away. He had nothing to say, why would he? They clearly got the message.

He rejoined Nino and found his place. The couple walked out of the stacks, stopping when they saw them. Their eyes darted from him, then to Nino, and not quite believing such a pair would share a table, at least in this reality. The guy shook his head at Futaro and led his girlfriend away.

Futaro sighed, "Those two."

Nino lit up, "What about them?"

"Just...here, of all places."

She sighed happily, "I know, isn't it romantic?"

"You saw them?"

"Yeah, I saw them in the stacks. I don't think they noticed me, ah, because they were busy. They were so adorable!"

Futaro rolled his eyes, "If you say so."

"Why so upset? There's nothing wrong with a little affection among couples."

"A little?"

"Yeah, why?"

"They were well past 'a little' when I showed up."

Nino paused, "Clothes on?"

"Mostly."

"Oh whatever then, so it's mostly fine. Still, they were just having some fun. Couples are allowed to do that."

"That, specifically?"

"Yeah," Nino said quickly, then blushed and she continued, "I mean, why not? It's not like I've done that or anything, but it looks," Nino paused, then shook her head, "Never mind, this is getting weird. Let's get back to it."

And they did, she hounded his brain for every factoid this section of the book could claw at, and he answered as best he could. It was remarkable how engaged Nino had become, but then again that shouldn't come as a surprise. Nino was remarkably adaptable, when she wanted to be. With her family, she was rigid as a carbon fiber weave against all but the most penetrative forces, of which he appeared to be. But otherwise, she changed her tune to the beat of the drum and moved on, whether it be with their home, their jobs, and now even their dates.

And then Futaro wondered if she envied the other couple. He wondered if she envied their passion and open display of affection. Futaro had gone so far as to hold her hand and hadn't felt that urge to press for more. Nino never complained, but maybe she wouldn't have minded if he were a little more advancing. But that wasn't his way. Relationships weren't about the hugs or the kisses, at least not to him. It was about the intimacy, a freedom to express oneself with another. Just like that night at the cake shop.

But they were to her. Of course they were. Was she holding herself back while he slowly learned his own sensitivities? Maybe. And then he wondered what she was thinking on all these dates. The first remained a capstone learning experience in proper planning, and the rest had gone well enough, he thought. But he, the man with an emotional graph that was only just coming out of a long flatline, was entrusted with planning these intimate moments. He'd done his best, he really did. But was there something in it that she was missing?

He could ask, but thought better of it. Nino was straightforward enough to tell him if something was truly wrong. Her complacence meant things were going well enough. Well enough. He didn't want that, though. He wanted it to be great. He wanted a perfect score. But to do that, he needed to find the missing pieces Nino was looking for. It may have been there, in that couple. But he wasn't ready for that. No, not by a long shot. The thought of arms tangled together, tongues crashing...ah, that's weird, it didn't sound so bad when he thought of it himself. With her. But it did feel strange, like seeing a blue jungle island on a green sea. He needed to find something else he could use. He tried to think of all the places he could take her, and if any of them would do.

And then he realized the answer, right under his nose all this time. Why did it all need to come from him?

"Hey, what're you doing tomorrow night after work?"

Nino looked up, "Nothing, got something in mind?"

"Nothing, but, what about you?"

"Huh?"

"Why don't you find something for us to do?"

"Are you asking me to ask you on a date?"

"Sounds about right."

"What kind of date?"

"Whatever you want. Really, I'm open to something new. If you want."

Nino thought for a moment, then checked her phone. For five minutes she was glued to the brilliant screen, her fingers flying like a game of whack-a-mole. Finally she stopped, grinned, and showed him her phone. There was a picture of five gorgeous young...men? They were men, right? They wore clothes you find in fashion catalogs and never on a living, breathing person on the streets, and their hair colors could be used to paint a rainbow. Each and every face was plastered with enough makeup to noticeably affect their weight on the scale, and magnified their looks of cool indifference to the onlooker, him.

"Ever been to a concert, Fuu?"

**A/N**

Something interesting happened. Another author found my story and enjoyed it enough to post a recommendation onto the Quintessential Quintuplets subreddit. There, I commented my thanks, and got my first reddit award in the form of silver. And it was touching, truly touching to receive that recognition. So thank you StarCatTibalt, and to jacobopineda99, for what you did for me. It made my day.

Regarding recent manga developments, I want to clarify two things in relation to this story: Yotsuba's backstory, and the childhood Nakano friend in the manga. Yotsuba is a character I plan to explore further here, and I plan to take her in a different direction than the manga, so please understand that moving forward. As for the childhood Nakano friend, I must warn you that what I am express is going to be negative: I do not like this inclusion. I do not like the trope of one-off childhood friends meeting again in the future as if by fate, and that driving romantic involvement. It reeks of destiny even if it means to. And while the manga continues and may take this trope in a different direction, as I hope it does, I do not intend to follow up with it. If I can, I intend to leave that part of the story behind like it was in the Seven Goodbyes arc. So be aware that childhood Nakano will have no further part to play, unless I see fit further on, which I doubt.

I'd like to outline the story a bit further. What I have envisioned now is a series of arcs, three in total, each around a dozen or so chapters. The present arc has two chapters left, and the second will begin shortly after. I haven't thought of naming them, not yet, but if I come up with something, I'll consider including it. Regardless, this first arc wraps up soon, and from there the story continues.

Thank you everyone who has encouraged me thus far, your comments and encouragement have been well met and brought me further joy in my writing. I'll begin the next chapter shortly and have that up in two weeks time. Until then, everyone.

Chapter published June 27th, 2019.


	13. Feeling At Long Last

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 13**

**Feeling At Long Last**

_**~Nino~**_

A date, what a marvelous thing. A timeless ritual of two would-be lovers circling into each others' gravity like twin suns yearning for supernova. Call it courtship, call it wooing, a dalliance, whatever suits your pleasure. The foundation of one was the same as any other, or close enough, just like the foundation of a house. If it be strong, it may stand. If not, it may stand still, for a time, before the cracks ran deep and the moisture fractures it further.

Their foundation wasn't formed yet, but settling, hardening into place. If it snapped into place now, it would be flawed and inevitably crumble. But there was time to smooth it out. If they both put in that last effort.

Nino was doing her part, a new one at that. Tonight, she played the enabler. See, a date does not magically happen, not like in the movies. A two-hour romcom can only fit so much content into its run time, and it chooses to show the intimate moments, those perfectly staged moments of bonding between the leading couple. They do not show the hours spent choosing the venue from a field of possibilities, cleaning the car of leftover fast food wrappings and chewing gum wrappers, pressing the suit free of wrinkles. These things simply happened. In real life, someone had to turn the wheels of romance.

This was the first time Nino acted as their enabler. All their previous dates had been Futaro's bold initiatives, and she'd been on the cushioned chariot racing from one event to the next, however those had turned out. Now it was her turn to crank the gears, and it was more time-consuming than she'd expected. Choosing a concert was the easy part, the challenge was finding a reasonable place to buy tickets. When she fumed how the internet was full of scalpers, she'd shot off to the venue itself the morning of and purchased them in person, surcharge free. Her pocketbook wasn't ready for convenience, it could barely stomach the tickets themselves. It sat a right bit leaner in her purse like a protester far into a hunger strike.

It couldn't end there though, and the rest of the evening hadn't gone smoothly either. Nowhere near as disastrous as their first date, at least not yet, but it was a start she'd have liked to avoid. She and Futaro had spent the last seven hours on shift at the cake shop. She'd had to bring her concert outfit in a bag to hide it, or she'd have risked dodging questions from Ichika all the way out the door. Futoro had closed once again, a part of his well-earned punishment, and while he worked she'd scrubbed the women's restroom herself to make sure it was clean enough to double as her changing room. She'd had to scrub the sink again after she finished her makeup. She'd forgone her ribbons today, she didn't want to risk losing them in the mobs if their knots came undone. She'd told Futaro to close as quickly as he could, and bless his sweaty soul, he did his best and was ready to change by the time she stepped outside. All that effort came at a price, and Futaro smelled of something fouler than cake batter. It'd be lost in the din of the crowd when they were all just as sweaty, she told herself. Still, she kept herself upwind of him on their way.

But all of that would be worth it once they stepped inside. The lights, the music, the life of the crowd, it would all be so ravishing! They were going to feel alive!

Maybe. She hoped. She glanced at Futaro as they walked down the street. Last night when she asked if he'd ever been to a concert before, she'd already known the answer. She could even guess his reasoning, she knew him well enough by now: 'So much wasted study time', and 'Why not just buy the CD? It's much cheaper'. He didn't understand, no one really did until they felt the beat flash through their bodies like lapping waves from a rising tide. Would he feel it tonight? She hoped so. She certainly hoped so.

She stopped him as they reached a staircase falling into the underground. There wasn't a line, just clusters of people trickling in at their leisure, people must have already swarmed inside. They'd missed the long wait in the queue, but they'd be stuffed in the nosebleed section, far from the stage. Oh well, as long as the band's equipment knew how to scream they'd do alright, she thought.

Futaro looked down and glared, "This is it?"

"Yup, welcome to The Afterlife."

"So Hell. We're going down, so that's Hell."

"Huh, never thought of it like that. The Afterlife is so much better, though."

"Uh-huh. Doesn't this look shady to you?"

"Have you ever seen a club before?"

"No."

"So here's a crash course-"

"You're not the tutor-"

"-there's clean clubs and sketchy clubs. You can usually tell by the people. If not, you'll know the moment you get inside."

"How? What're the signs?"

"Use your gut for once, braniac."

"Right. So this is?"

"The only kind I go to." Nino said confidently. Futaro waited for her to continue. Nino glared, "What kind of girl do you think I am?"

Futaro glanced down the stairs, "Let's find out."

"What's that supposed to mean!?" She said, and Futaro grinned like a card shark after making his play. Nino realized, and said, "Are you teasing me?"

"Who, me?"

"That's sadistic!"

Futaro shrugged, and said, "Well, I learned from the best." He eyed her knowingly.

Nino bit back a sneer, "That was the line, Fuu. Watch it."

Futaro was unfazed, "Do you have the tickets?"

Nino glared a moment longer, then sighed and pulled out her phone and her e-receipt, "Here, we show them to the bouncer and we're in."

Futaro nodded and headed down the stairs. Nino followed and flashed her phone to the bouncer, a man who was built less like a brick house and more like a yurt with a few hundred miles on it. But his eyes were like needles pinning you to the floor and he held himself like a man twice his size challenging disturbance, and Nino imagined that was enough to dissuade the average troublemaker.

The bouncer nodded and handed them a pair of blue wristbands. Blue signified guests who were underage, the red ones were the tickets to the bar. Nino ruefully thought how they were too young for that kind of excitement.

Those wristbands opened the door for them and they headed down another flight of stairs into the wide open space of the concert venue. Bright florescents illuminated the bleak interior, but they would die and be replaced with a spectrum once the concert began. Crowds of people were already milling about, the red-bands armed with colorful drinks to heighten their evenings. The patient crowd was already assembling around the stage, knowing they'd lose their place if they dared to step away.

The Afterlife was a newer club, but the space itself wasn't. An architect might wander the venue and find hints at its former life: the perfectly spaced columns, the industrial wiring above, all hinting at its prior existence as an underground parking lot. The owner was a pragmatic businessman always prowling for the next moneymaker, and when a clever entrepreneur broached the idea of turning his underground parking space into a venue, he'd listened. Heavily insulated with layers of dirt, wide open space, and rife with opportunity to draw massive crowds just begging to burn cash on a night out, much more than the stingy traveler was paying to park their commuter for a few hours. The liqueur sales alone sold the idea, and The Afterlife was born.

Nino dragged Futaro to the edge of the crowd. She moaned, "Dammit, why are the tall guys crowding the front? It's so rude! Show some consideration for the vertically challenged!"

"I can see just fine," Futaro said.

"Said the giraffe."

"Blame genetics, Nino."

"Lemme hop up on your shoulders."

"Bad idea."

"Right, you're as stable as London Bridge."

"Genetics."

"I've seen your Father. Genetics have nothing to do with it."

Futaro recoiled, and Nino called that her revenge.

They didn't have to wait long before those ugly lights dimmed, splashing them in sudden darkness. Futaro grabbed her shoulder and asked, "What happened, a power outage?"

"Listen," Nino whispered, the crowd had gone deathly quiet, three hundred sets of lungs holding their breath for the moment, the gunshot, the curtain call. The very air was ripped from the room, and with it went the sound, trapping them in darkness, and in silence. But Nino could feel the crowd around her like a herd on a great plain waiting for a sign, a roar, to come to life.

There was a low hum from behind the stage, the sound of something waking from a deep slumber. Suddenly a crash! And another! Then the lights lit up in blues and greens and luscious reds and the crowd roared, oh, it roared like a pride on savanna. But the sound from the stage roared back with the sudden fury of an earthquake, ripping through their collective cores and sending shivers through every ear and down every spine.

The lights flashed like hummingbird wings and they burst onto the stage, five colorful boys armed with weapons of sound, and they ripped through the air and murdered the silence with reckless impunity. Drumsticks clashed under the roaring guitar, but theirs was a struggle in unity, all working to feed that underlying beat, beat, beat! And then the singer, a young lad not much older than him and her with hair as orange as magma, belted out a wail that woke the dead in the underworld below their feet and the crowd exploded!

Nino was right there, a small part of a much larger cry that was deafened by the roar of the band as they commanded the sound, weaving it into that marvelous beat, beat, beat that shook her like a rattlesnake shaking its tail and she loved it!

A band this good doesn't normally play on a Sunday night, oh no, they usually get prime booking in the early weekend and sell out entire clubs. Only two types of bands played on a Sunday here: the dregs, and the undiscovered, and Nino knew how to tell them apart. It was all in the label, the managing company. They knew they had to start their new ensembles off small, give them a few shakedowns before giving them a proper debut. Nino knew this company, and she knew this new band would be prime to surprise the Sunday crowd. And did they ever!

They tore apart the air and rearranged it into a rhapsodic cacophony of sounds blasting over the crowd like an alarm sending everyone into a frenzy! A mosh pit was already forming ahead of them and those brave souls were circling the core like a flurry of sharks, bouncing and screaming with delight! The crowd pushed in closer to the stage and Nino was right here with them. She screamed her lungs inside out as the band slashed through their first number, a startling power piece to steal everyone's attention and let everyone know what they were here for, in case anyone might have any misconception what was to come. The lead singer pointed out into the crowd and cast a spell because they all screamed even louder as their instruments went silent. And then he threw his arms wide and the lead guitar tore into their next song.

Nino was hopping up and down and ran her fingers through her hair, her forehead already damp with sweat, and for once she didn't care. This was the time and place for a little dampness. The chill from before was long gone, and she didn't know if it was from the crowd of from her own rushing blood.

She turned to Futaro. She wanted to see the same excitement on his face, how the powerful bass had ripped away his indifference and given him a rare spurt of joy. But she should have known it was not to be.

Futaro huddled into himself staring at the flashcards in his hand. He flipped one on its metal ring and ran his eyes over the next, his mouth following the text as if in a trance. Because that's what it had to be, for him to ignore the pandemonium all around him. He willfully withdrew into the one thing he knew too well: his studies. Even here.

He finally noticed her glaring at him, looking up from his flashcards. He didn't look guilty. Just confused. It was as if he wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten here, like he'd wandered in from the library without realizing he should notice the noise.

Any anger she felt dissipated when she saw his expression, and she realized she shouldn't have expected anything else. She'd hoped he could dive right into the life of the concert and flow with the music, but of course he couldn't. It was like throwing a baby into the water and expecting it to swim. Too much, too fast, it could only flounder and drown. Everything was baby steps with Futaro, she couldn't expect him to leap with her. Not yet. Maybe not ever. That last bit made her sad when she realized it might always be like this. Baby steps. Just tiptoeing to the finish line one day at a time.

It couldn't be helped now. They were in for the ride, the crowd was swallowing itself and they'd have a hard time getting out now. She stepped closer to him so he'd remember she was there and turned back to the stage. She tried getting back into the rhythm of the concert, but part of her was torn for Futaro, like she had one foot in the pool and the other in the desert. She patted his back to remind him she was there and jumped with the crowd to the beat, beat, beat.

She didn't resent him. Not then. Not yet.

_**~Futaro~**_

Too. Much. It was too much! The noise was like a thousand screaming souls from hell! That's it! This was hell! It had to be! Their cries raked at his barriers trying to bring them down!

That first note had been the harbinger of doom. It promised ten thousand more, just as sharp and painful on his conscious. This was not a band in The Afterlife, it was an army of specters come to stroke every sin of the souls caught in their net, a crowd of souls willingly embracing their malevolent gift of ruin. Their very feet shook the floor as if to make it collapse and expose the land of the dead itself so they might tumble in, a waterfall of the damned. His whole body trembled to the point of collapse with the beat, beat, beat!

Futaro's trip into feeling was small, one step at a time. He had slowly opened the dam of feeling he'd so masterfully constructed and exposed the entrance to his fortress of unfeeling solitude. But this was...he didn't want to feel this. Not at all. And in an instant he rallied his defenses, battened down the hatches, raised the drawbridge, boarded the windows and set a watch against all feeling. Then he retreated into the one place he might have some control: his studies. He took his ever-present flash cards and gave them all his focus until the world itself seemed to melt away, with all the assaults on his delicate senses.

He shut out the noise masquerading as music. He shut out the screams. He shut out the bumping, the shoving, the shaking. He shut out the smells of sweat and humidity, the salty taste of the air, he shut out the beat, beat, beat! He shut it all away and crafted a place all his own, with these little flash cards. He ignored the world and created order and peace.

He delved into the familiar equations, the formulas and properties of chemistry, the building blocks of all matter. One who mastered the fundamentals could control reality, in theory. He found the idea full of promise, crafting a world to suit his tastes. His fingers fell into practiced rhythm flipping the worn cards one after another. He settled his mind into a natural rhythm as well-paved neural paths fired with solutions, the comfortable roads of familiarity.

He could have stayed there all evening and left the outside world to its anarchy. But one thing burrowed through his raised defenses, something that had learned how to wiggle through his isolation with so much practice. It was her. wasn't it always?

He raised his eyes to Nino. He caught the last of her surprise, then a brief flash of anger, but then that faded too, like a candle snuffed by breath. Then she shook her head as if shaking him away. She gave him a wane smile that almost forgave him before falling back into the roars, the mob, and the beat, beat, beat!

Futaro should have felt ashamed. He didn't, his emotions were hidden away with the rest of his senses. But he knew he should feel it now. Hadn't he asked Nino to bring him somewhere, to do something that mattered to her? Hadn't he tried? But he just couldn't do it, he couldn't fall into the bedlam of writhing bodies around him. No, that was wrong. It wasn't that he couldn't, he could. But the very idea terrified him like a recurring nightmare leaving him in cold sweat.

He was finally ready to say he wanted to feel something, and that his years of isolating himself into academic numbness might have been a mistake. But that was still his world, his baseline that he wasn't fully ready to leave. This world of Nino's demanded he tear himself away from all that he knew and open himself up to the swells and tides of this strange new land. He could feel it beating facelessly against him demanding he open his gates, and he just couldn't give that up. Not yet. Maybe not ever. And certainly no this fast.

Futaro returned to his comfortable flash cards. Flip. Flip. Flip. On and on and on with no end in sight. He was frozen in himself. No end to this isolation, not now. Maybe later, but not now. Not now. But…

Nino's hair caught his eye, a flicker of tea rose blooming like a flower in the sunlight. She spun with her hands in the air like a coin rolling on its edge. She laughed, an eruption somewhere deep inside her surging out into the uproar. And then she noticed him through his isolation. She stopped her dancing, panting in place as they stared at each other, her into him. Futaro should have felt ashamed again. And maybe she saw that, buried somewhere deep inside him. She saw that possibility, and the others. Was that why she stayed so long? For hope of what he could be?

Her eyes were dancing with the light, twin torches outside his walls offering enlightenment in the dark. And then he looked beyond them, into her, and saw her soul. It was a forest fire blazing over the hills, leaping up to touch the sky in its smoldering dance. It whiplashed as if to invite him closer, to burn, he thought at first. Or, he realized, to warm him. And he saw the future in her eyes, one of many.

Did he want that? They both asked him at once, their question the only silence in the room.

Futaro's hand fell to his side, his flash cards hanging limply in his fingers. He wanted Nino to turn away, to face the stage and rejoin the hollering mass. Then he wouldn't need to give her an answer, he wouldn't have to decide. But her eyes were on him, so lively and excited as a firecracker sparkling in the dark. She rolled her arms in a small dance and moved closer, could she see his conflict?

She moved closer still, every flicker an invitation, oh why wouldn't she just turn away? People were only so adaptable, they can only range so far beyond their native habitat before they suffer from overexposure to raw elements. Couldn't she see he didn't belong here?

Wait. Wouldn't that mean he didn't belong with her?

He could have thought to himself, maybe it was for the best. Maybe they just weren't compatible. They could never work together, they'd ruin each other as quickly as fire and ice. But he didn't, because he didn't want to believe it. Why? What about this woman kept making him want to step into the beyond?

His eyes were in hers, and he knew she was hoping. She had his attention, did she have the rest of him? But he'd have to let down his walls and embrace all this...feeling. It would be like catching a plane falling out of the sky. His body couldn't handle the stress.

But it was that, or she'd never look at him like that again. For if she looked away, something would change between them, and the distance would open like a rift in the earth. This was his last chance. He didn't want her looking away!

Her eyes, her stare, her promise, those were the keys to Futaro's impenetrable gateway of indifference. All it took was a little turn. And here it was: Nino's lips moved like a snake slithering on a mirror. Her words, whatever they were, were lost in the maelstrom of music and madness. There was the possibility, as infinite as the Milkyway rising against the Moon. He wanted to hear those words meant only for him, whatever they may be. He wanted them to wash over him like a blanket he could wrap himself on a stormy night.

A want to feel, that was the crack in the door. And through that tiny crack, the concert roared through like a flood bursting through an innocuous crack! All the cheers and the vibration and the salty smell and the bouncing bodies and the wailing lyrics and the howling guitar and the beat, beat, beat! Everything pushed its way into Futaro's little world like an injection!

And she was at the center of it all. She wasn't his chaos, his unanswerable question. No, she was so much more. She was his partner, his troublemaker, his romance, his tormentor, his girlfriend, his obstacle, and now his muse, his catalyst. She was his anchor in this wild storm of living. This woman who lit up his life and illuminated so much he had missed!

Now he was feeling, everything he kept hidden, and more. The life around him filled his very being and pushed everything out into the open, it came bursting forth like a geyser launching a hundred feet into the sky. It intertwined with the world that was overwhelming his senses like light through a kaleidoscope and he could feel everything!

Futaro threw his hand high and flung the flash cards into the air, the spun free of the little ring and rained like fluttering confetti. Nino watched it fall to the floor with delight and screamed, hopping with her hand in the air. And Futaro, he felt that beat, beat, beat! It took his body and he let if flow, moving his limbs wherever they pleased. He threw his head back and howled, a noise he could never recall making before, but to hell with the past, he did it now and it felt damn good!

He jumped to the music, but more importantly he jumped to her, matching her movements and her jumps until they were one. He took her free hand in his own and pulled her closer, surprising her greatly, but she came willingly until they were chest-to-chest, almost touching, flowing to the beat. Her joy and her cheers were twice as strong, because his were pushing hers on.

The song reached its apex and the singer bellowed out a note so high it could break glass, and then went silent all at once. The crowd cheered like the lunatics they were, and Futaro, the greatest lunatic of the night, was right there with them, and with her.

He pulled Nino close, his arms lacing behind her back and feeling the sweat at the small of her back.

She laughed, "What's gotten into you?"she said, her voice happy and sprightly as a line drawn tight.

Futaro said, "I don't know," then he kissed her. It wasn't planned, he suddenly needed to feel her lips. So he did it. He held her head in his hands and kissed her. If she hesitated, it was too quick to notice, and she fell into it, and into him. It was a bumbling, inexperienced kiss, but passion can cover a thousand shortcomings. His would cover more, but he didn't care to think about that. All that mattered were her lips, so soft and moist, moving against his, her tongue bravely peeking out against his lips, a challenge his own met in a graceless melee. She hugged him closer, their chests pressed together, and between them there was a unified beat, beat, beat!

Was she blushing when they parted? Was he? It was impossible to tell in the colorful lights. But he wasn't embarrassed, he never felt more right, not on any test, or anything else.

The band kicked into the next song and the air was consumed with the beat, beat, beat! But Futaro didn't notice, there was something inside his chest more pressing, a different beat, beat, beat!

"I love you!" he screamed.

Nino shouted something back, but he couldn't hear. So he said it again.

"I love you!" It flowed through the pathways of emotion that were open inside him at last.

Nino smiled and hugged him, and Futaro hugged her back. Had she heard him? Probably not. But there'd be another time. For now, this moment would be enough. Because in this brave new land, full of infinite possibility for him to discover, this first explosive leap would remain theirs forever.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair. She, his love who reminded him how to live.

**A/N**

When I first came up with the idea of this story, I had a handful of scenes: chapter 1, where Nino draws back, chapters 6 and 7 where Nino struggles and Futaro has his first reversal, and this, chapter 13, when Futaro breaks through his barriers and remembers how to feel. That has been the foundation of the story since the beginning, and how I've been waiting to write it. It isn't exactly as I pictured it at first, nothing ever is when putting it to written word, but I think I got the essence of what I imagined.

And this scene I owe to a song, one particular song: Shut Up And Dance, by Walk The Moon. I listened to it repeatedly during the writing, and I recommend you re-read this again with it on repeat, especially in Futaro's section. On another note, I purposely had the title's acronym spell out 'FALL', for what Futaro does at the end. And The Afterlife is a direct reference to Mass Effect, one of my favorite universes. I like to picture a Japanese equivalent of Aria T'Loak sitting virgil over her den watching as this chapter unfold.

This is a climax of sorts, but not an ending. Love is a beginning, and by no means the start of an easy road. A change, possibly a happy one, but change nonetheless is rarely seamless. They're kids still discovering themselves, never mind that they're both nearly legal adults. They have a long way to go.

And that will follow soon. The next chapter will be an epilogue of sorts for this first arc, and a prologue to the next. I hope it will be just as engaging, if for different reasons, and just as meaningful as what's come before it. Thank you everyone who's stuck with it this far, who's only just joining, and will continue to support the story moving forward. Please review and share your thoughts, and I'll continue this story soon.

Chapter published July 11th, 2019.


	14. Midnight Stroll

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****4**

**Midnight Stroll**

_**~Nino~**_

"It's nothing, Futaro. Stop worrying about it."

"It's like a pair of tiny mosquitoes are dogfighting in my skull and someone's trying to suffocate them by stuffing cotton in my ears. I'm going to worry about it."

"You're freaking out over nothing, just bring it down. Think about it."

"You're right, need to think. Maybe we should go to the hospital."

"Not like that!"

"Will this warrant surgery?"

"You sound like you're talking through a wall to me, too. This happens every time."

"You're sure this is normal?"

"I'm telling you, it's normal. It goes away on its own."

"Really?"

"This is like my twentieth concert. Yeah, really."

"Twenty? And your ears haven't revolted yet?"

"Yeah, because they get better. And if you ask me one more time I'm going to take that cotton out of your ears and shove it in your mouth."

Futaro mulled her threat, then shook his head, "I don't like that."

"That's the point, you-" She was cut off when Futaro leaned down and kissed her. His lips crashed on hers, too hard, and their teeth clacked together. They leaned back and grimaced. Nino ran her tongue over her throbbing teeth to check that everything was still in its proper place. "Careful when you do that!"

Futaro rubbed his mouth and muttered, "Sorry."

"Try again."

"Huh?"

"Try again! Carefully," Nino demanded.

Futaro looked amused, "I like it when you ask me to-"

"Ask? Who's asking for anything? I'm simply giving you the chance to make up for your blunder."

"You're literally asking for it."

Nino felt her cheeks warming in blush and wondered if Futaro could see it in the street light. He better not be enjoying it. She fumed, "Fine then, just forget it." She moved to stride past him, but he caught her and pulled her closer. He looked at her with those eyes, such pretty eyes as cool as permafrost. They sparked in the dim light lingering in the night like ice cubes in a colorful drink under a candelabra. When he tried again, she let him. Oh, did she ever. She didn't know if they still sucked at kissing, they probably did, and it didn't matter. His lips were warm butter melting over hers. Oh, yes!

Futaro pulled back, "That's how you shut someone up."

Nino glared, "You want me to shut up?"

"You don't get to complain when you make the same threat."

"Double standards of men and women, Fuu."

"Whatever. My way is better."

Nino knew she was blushing like iron ready for the smithy, but she owned it, tapping his cheek and winking, "I didn't disagree." She took his hand and they continued down the empty street along the river.

Nino tapped her teeth carefully, "Watch it next time, this is a million-yen smile you're threatening."

"You're being gratuitous."

"No, this literally cost a million yen."

"Huh? How?"

"A couple awkward years and a very good orthodontist."

"Huh. What're we talking? You had dental work?"

"Something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It was more like a project. Like building a Pyramid."

"Braces? Retainer? Head gear?"

Nino grumbled, "All three, at one point."

"No way. When was this?"

"No, forget it. I shouldn't have said anything."

"There's no going back now, Nino. Gotta lay it all out for me."

"I do not."

"I'm persistent. You know that well enough by now."

She sighed, "Yeah, I do. Fine, but keep this to yourself."

"Like I talk with anyone else."

"Why does it sound like you're bragging about being a hermit?"

"Get on with it, Nino."

"Alright. It was primary school and my teeth weren't coming in straight, and as if that weren't enough I had an under bite. My mom took me to the orthodontist and she cycled me through all three for...two years? Something like that."

"I'm trying to imagine you with head gear."

"Don't, it wasn't permanent. Just something I had to wear at night."

"How long did your sisters have to wear them?"

"They didn't."

"It was only you?"

"Just me. Everyone else's teeth were perfect, or close enough," Nino said, pausing, "I didn't talk much back then. I didn't like being different. I could pretend we were still the same whenever my mouth was shut."

Futaro's hand shifted in hers, rubbing the back of her hand. "And now you're a gossip. It's like you're making up for lost time."

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Did you ever have dental work?"

"Just cavities. I, well, used to think it was cool to not brush my teeth. Then, when I got three cavities, my dad took pictures of me in the dental chair with my mouth pried open after being drugged halfway to nirvana. He joked, 'Now this is cool!', that got me brushing real good. Never had a cavity since."

"Can I see them?"

"My fillings?"

"Yeah, I'm curious."

"You've never seen one?"

"Nope, we never got cavities. Mom made sure we brushed like a religious ritual."

"Probably saved your family a lot of money back then."

"Yeah, well, except for me and my stupid teeth. I was the expensive one." She frowned, and wondered if she'd been perfect, her mother would have been able to afford nicer things. Better food, and more of it, too. Enough for mother never wondering if she had enough for all six plates. Maybe even better treatment for herself. One million yen was a lot of money then, would it have made a difference for mother? She didn't want to think about that, it always took her somewhere unhappy. "I broke my leg once, too, during football. And my eyes are the worst of the five of us. I've worn contacts since I was eight. I've always had glasses and I never used them, I would've been different from my sisters. And those lenses, I don't think they were cheap back then." She paused, then said, "There was always something wrong with me she needed to fix."

She didn't catch herself in time, whatever expression sparked something in Futaro. He narrowed his eyes at her, "None of that was your fault."

She shrugged, "It still happened." Dammit, why was she the one ruining their night? Why did she always take it somewhere unpleasant? She'd never talked about these things with her sisters, but with him they just kept popping up, like she was slowly turning into the topics like a drunk driver veering off the road.

A part of her knew she wanted to share these dark doubts with him, but she'd couldn't fully admit it to herself. It was too much for her to accept, at least for now.

Futaro said, "It was worth the price."

"Huh?"

"Your smile. Worth it, I think. I'm sure she thought so, too. After all, she wouldn't have paid if she didn't." Futaro scratched the back of his head, looking uncomfortable, as if he'd stepped into the wrong restroom. How often did he try cheering someone up who wasn't in his family? Hardly ever, and certainly not like this. Something else just for her. That alone made her feel better.

She leaned in closer and asked, "Can I see those pictures?"

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

"I promise I won't laugh."

"You'll break it, and still no."

"Why are you being so difficult? It's just one picture."

"One picture? Alright, fine. Show me yours, braceface."

"Never."

"All's fair."

"Not even possible. I destroyed them all."

"There isn't one sitting in one of your scrap books?"

"All closed-mouth smiles."

"Is that so? Alright, well I'm sure if I ask Ichika-"

"Don't you dare!"

"Ah, so there's still a print somewhere. I think it's a fair trade."

"It is not. That's..."

Futaro smiled slightly, "Alright, let's drop it."

Nino slid her hand up to grip his arm, letting him lead her down the empty street. A few lonely cars zipped through the evening as lone messengers braving the unknown. They walked under dim streetlights along the river leading them home. She wondered how much time they had left until they arrived. She wasn't ready for the night to end.

Suddenly Futaro started humming something, an echo of a tune. She recognized it from the concert, the one the band played early on, right before he kissed her.

"What's with you? You're acting weird."

"You don't like it?"

"I didn't say that. It's just, strange."

He shrugged and continued humming. He reached the chorus and sang softly, "Fallen away, to the last of memories. I reach out and clasp what-"

"You're singing it wrong."

"Huh?"

"It goes 'I reach out and touch what can never be'."

"Really? I could've sworn...well, I wasn't really listening."

Nino grinned, "Oh, was I distracting?"

"Completely." He said, not knowing how sexy he was, which was very. He asked her, "Did you hear what I said in there?"

Nino shook her head, "During the song? You said it right when the beat dropped, of course I couldn't hear it."

Futaro smiled at her, the kind of smile that wraps you up like a blanket so completely you want to fall asleep in it. Then he looked up to the sky. "There are trillions of trillions of stars up there. How many can you see?"

Nino swept the sky and found a few dozen glittering through the evening glow. "Maybe fifty?"

"You'd see a few hundred on a good night with the new moon. Last year, when we were up that mountain one night, I saw thousands. More stars than I'd ever seen at once. And that wasn't even a fraction of what's up there. I wondered what it would be like to see them all at once, one massive canvas of lights. I wonder if it would be blinding.

"And now when I look up, I think, how small everything is. I've never been more than a few hundred kilometers outside this city, I've never left the country. All that I've seen is just, so, small. If I snap my fingers," he snapped, "the light from my snap will cross the distance of the Earth before the sound crosses the river. And I almost want to give up caring about everything in the face of something so big, something I know I'll never understand even if I study 'til I die.

"But suddenly, that doesn't seem as important. I don't care anymore if I'm small, or if my own little slice of this world is nothing compared to everything I can't know. It matters to me. In all that bigness, I can give my own little world its meaning. And I realized something, I can break the laws of physics. I can make matter from nothing, by deciding what matters at all."

Then he looked at her with those eyes that were suddenly as bottomless as a hole to the center of the earth, infinite wells of dream.

"I said that I love you."

Sometimes the brain hears something so inconceivable, it resets itself several seconds and repeats the immediate past, like rewinding the tape on a worn-out VHS. Nino's brain did this once, twice, and still couldn't quite grasp exactly what he said. Not right away.

But Futaro continued, looking straight at her with his steady gaze as casually as if he were discussing the headlines at the table. Futaro was a boulder, it took him time to change at all. But once he did, he was solid. As soon as he was sure of something, he was rarely awkward expressing it. That time on the roof, his feelings were a wriggling ball of worms impossible to unwind. Now he was sure, his love was a fact, and there was nothing to fear in expressing a fact.

He said, "And I know it's sudden, it surprised me too. It happened right there at the concert, you know the moment. I saw you, ah, you just looked so alive, and I realized I'd forgotten about that, and I wanted to feel it again. I wanted what you had. You brought that back to me, and I fell in love with you.

"I memorized the definition of love in English class: a feeling of warm personal attachment or affection for another. Ten little words, that's all it was to me. But it's deeper now. I've read a hundred poems from wise men searching to give it a proper meaning, and I never saw beneath the surface. So I really don't have the vocabulary to describe this, what I feel for you. But I have the word, and that's all I need to tell you. And I don't know if it's something that lasts forever or if it's half-life is already ticking down. I hope its the former, but I know that right now, love is what it is. So I want to enjoy it with you, however long it lasts."

How she'd wanted to be loved. She'd imagined Futaro's inevitable falling for her, the confession under the moonlight without any hesitation. Now here it was, almost like she'd dreamed. And she couldn't believe it was happening. She stood frozen, unsure if she would suddenly wake up. Because deep down she hadn't thought it would ever happen, that invisible boundary between her hope and reality could never be crossed. He couldn't love her, not like she wanted. So when he did, when he finally met her expectation, she couldn't believe it. And, secretly, so secret even she wouldn't acknowledge it, because she didn't think she deserved it.

But Futaro made her cross that boundary, he wanted her to acknowledge his confession. He stepped closer to her and tentatively reached for her hips to hold her. His hands numbed her where they touched. Nino stared at him, her mind still reeling from reality. "I love you, Nino."

Her mother had left her quintuplets with many lessons. One of her last was shared just six months before her death. She must have seen the cloaked visage waiting to welcome her from this life waiting on the horizon. Before she left, she wanted to leave her daughters with as much womanly wisdom to face the world as she could manage. This particular lesson was in men. Find a good one, she said, and beware anyone who honeys their words with filling lies. Search for a true man, a good man, or no man at all and you will be better for it. She and her sisters hadn't thought much of it then, boys were still disgusting, dirty little creatures they were happy to avoid. It was Itsuki who put the pieces together, after they learned the specifics about where little children come from. Itsuki noted they never knew their dad, and how mother never talked about him. She wondered if their mother had learned this lesson the hard way.

Nino argued with Itsuki's reasoning. Their mother never talked about their father and wouldn't let them ask her why. So they were left to imagine what kind of man he was, or had been. Miku and Yotsuba thought he had died, but that couldn't be it, or they'd have visited her grave. Itsuki imagined it was her mother who kept him out of their life, for one reason or another, against his will. Ichika never told them what she thought he might be, not directly. But once she'd let slip that maybe even mother hadn't known who he was. As for Nino, she liked to imagine him as a charming rogue wandering the world, a man of the road, a modern adventurer freed from restraint and the opinions of others. She wondered if he'd love them, her, if he met them. She thought he would have. Those were their girlish imaginings, and they were left in childhood. Mostly. Maybe she carried that ideal of a man a little longer. But it never bothered her, growing up without a father. She never looked at other families and felt like something was missing. She'd had her mother, her sisters, and a real father later on. They were complete as long as they were together.

But her mother's words came back to her now and then, always in the most uncalled for moments. When she was alone chopping vegetables, walking with friends in the mall, they would strike her and remind her. They came to her now. Was Futaro a liar? Or was he a good man? A true man? Could she trust him and his love? And she wondered, what would mother think? Would she see him as everything she'd learned from their birth father? Maybe. But Nino did. She trusted him. And she felt his love, his genuine love, all for her. She breathed his words as a substitute for air, and it filled her, lightening her like a balloon until she floated away. She was loved. At last.

Futaro had a moment, a sliver of a second, to flash amusement, as if he'd expected her to act how she did, as Nino tackled him and kissed him like a lost soul in the desert kisses a pond. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, wanting to feel his body pressed tightly against hers like cars colliding on a highway. She moved her mouth like she saw in the soaps she watched with her sisters, opening it and tentatively poking her tongue to welcome his lips. She expected him to freeze up at her advance, but Futaro was full of surprises tonight and welcomed her, all of her, just like she imagined. His arms circled her waist like a wall shielding her from the rest of the world and she happily made herself his captive. She moved her hands to cradle his face and held it while kissing him, her fingers trailing his skin as if to memorize his look by feeling. His tongue flipped hers on the tip and it felt much, much better than she thought it would, like every touch completed an electric current. That indirect kiss on the rooftop was so far away.

They broke apart and Nino breathed, asking, "Say it again?"

"I love you," he said.

"With my name, say it that way."

"I love you, Nino."

"I love you too, Fuu. Futaro." She leaned into his shoulder and felt his arms cradling her comfortably. His hand rose to thread her hair at the back of her head, she felt his fingers teasing her scalp. She leaned up and kissed his cheek, it was warm in the cold from a blush that hadn't gone away. She could have enjoyed staying like this for the night, never letting the moment die.

But it had to, nothing can last forever. And certainly nothing this good. But it wasn't either of them who took their moment away. The world did that for them.

Nino felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She ignored it, until it buzzed again. And again. It ended on the fourth. Then she felt Futaro's phone buzz once, twice, thrice, four times. Futaro noticed too and said, "No one messages me this late. Except you."

So who would be messaging both of them?

Nino and Futaro checked their phones. Futaro frowned, "There's a link, open it on yours."

"You need a better phone plan."

"It's enough."

Nino rolled her eyes and checked her phone. "It's Yotsuba."

"What is it?"

"Here." She showed him.

_GUYS! GU_

_YS! BIG PROBLEM! BIG BIG PROBLEM!_

_*GUYS!_

_CHECK THE LINK!_

Nino checked the numbers in the conversation. Just her and Futaro. Why would Yotsuba be texting only the two of them? She glanced at Futaro, who shrugged. She opened the link and waited for it to load. It linked to a single tweet with a picture. She read the text as it loaded.

_Looks like Yotsubunny and Uesugi are having a good time! Called it! #TheAfterlife #Classromance #Classreplove_

The image loaded, and her world shattered so that nothing could be the same.

She looked at the picture of her and Futaro at a distance, bathed in the glow of the concert, lips locked in their first kiss for everyone to see.

Everyone.

**A/N**

If the last chapter was the climax of the arc, think of this as a short epilogue, and a hint at what's to come in the next. I suppose it could have ended here, if things had gone a bit differently. But they didn't, and happily ever afters are not that easy. This was never meant to be a fairy tale, but something more grounded, and they both still have a long ways to go.

I'm noticing something as I go on, and that's that while I planned for this story to begin as a story with two protagonists, and it's switched between their perspectives fairly evenly so far. In the future, I see it shifting further towards Nino, possibly to the point where she's become the protagonist and Futaro is the dueteragonist. I didn't plan for it to go that way, but characters can surprise you. If it does, then this is more Nino's story than anyone's, and I'm not opposed to the idea.

One anonymous reviewer mentioned how the party last chapter didn't seem to reflect on Japanese culture, and seemed overly American, along with Futaro's sudden burst of emotion. I'd like to comment on this briefly, once more. I am American, my perspective is American, and that will inevitably influence the story in ways it would not be if I were Japanese. I'm sure Japan youth enjoy some similar night life, but I cannot say they are parallel. They are only what I know. But I think Nino is the kind of girl who'd enjoy that style of concert, so I don't consider it OOC.

The last chapter garnered a groundswell of support, and it's thanks to that that I found the extra willpower to polish this chapter and get it out on schedule. Thank you to everyone who had enjoyed this story, who's reviewed or commented their support, and I hope you'll continue to do so. With the next arc, I can promise more trials for both Nino and Futaro, and for their friends and family, and even more perspectives as the story broadens its scope. I hope you'll enjoy this next stage. So please continue to enjoy, review, and I'll continue this story soon.


	15. The Scapegoat

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****5**

**The Scapegoat**

**~Futaro~**

"I'm so screwed. Oh," Nino moaned over her coffee.

Yotsuba placidlypatted her sister's back in a vain show at comfort, "Oh, don't say that now."

Futaro leaned back and said, "It's no use, she's been like this since your texts."

He sipped his water, set it on the table and enjoyed the warmth radiating from the overhead heat lamps. He'd tried in his own way to bring Nino out of her worry, his own way being more of a forceful tug to Yotsuba's gentle ministrations. But she'd stayed locked in her worrying despair all the way to this 24-hour fast food joint, the closest they'd find to a cafe at this hour, and Yotsuba's recommendation for a meeting place.

Futaro slid Nino's phone from her lazy grip to look at the picture that haunted her screen. "Any idea who took this?"

Yotsuba said, "One of the girls in our class. See the handle?"

"What's a handle?"

"Ah, username."

"Why can't they just call it that?" Futaro growled.

Yotsuba giggled, "You're such an old man, Futaro." Her brief diversion in humor was derailed by Nino's fiery glare. Futaro curiusly looked on as Yotsuba appeared chastised and laughed lamely, guiltily, for reasons lost to him.

Nino said, "What do you think about this?"

Yotsuba grimaced, "Huh? I don't get it."

"Remember when we found out Ichika was working as an actress and she had to hide in her room to get away from all our questions? You should be hounding me just as hard, I know I would. But not this time. You're taking this way too well."

"What? Oh! No, it's not that weird."

"Really? The dating? The hiding? The tweet-"

Futaro interrupted, "That, she did not take well at all-"

"-everything! You're acting weird." Nino stood up and towered over Yotsuba, trapping her like a bunny in a snare, "What do you know?"

Yotsuba wilted until the only thing firm was her lips pressed into a solid line of impenetrability. She leaned away, and looked ready to lean farther, farther, all the way until her chair tipped if necessary, anything to get her out of the spotlight. But a brave, gallant savior came to her rescue before gravity claimed her as its victim.

Futaro said, "Everything."

Nino's head spun so quickly her hair followed in whiplash, "How?"

"I told her."

"You!?"

"Yes, me."

"Yes, him!" Yotsuba exclaimed, throwing her hands up in victory. "I kept my secret to the end!" She hollared, immensely proud with herself.

"But why!?" Nino asked in shock.

"Why what?" Futaro replied.

"Why would you tell her! I told you not to tell anyone!"

"And I didn't, not after you told me not to. But I'd already told her everything before that, so it didn't make sense keeping her in the dark."

Nino looked at Yotsuba with disbelief, "But...you're a horrible liar!"

Yotsuba gave a peace sign, "Can't lie if no one asks!"

Nino's head was on a loose swivel between her radiant sister and her impassive, cleverly clandestine boyfriend. She sat down and crossed her arms in a huff, eyeing him with flaming daggers, "You should have told me."

He shrugged, "You didn't want your sisters knowing. We just made it seem that way." Futaro slid her phone over the table, "Let's get back to this. So you know the girl who posted this?"

Nino's eyes were still burning into him when she took her phone and unlocked it. The screen came alive with the damning proof of their dalliance. "Yeah, I know her too. She's a blabbermouth. It's no wonder they can't tell us apart, though. We're too alike to everyone with my hair this short, and with the lighting, even we'd have trouble telling who it is." She ran a hand slowly through her shortened locks and pondered, "Maybe I should grow it out again."

Yotsuba said, "She thought Uesegi and I were dating a few weeks ago, that might be why."

Nino glared, "And why would she think that?"

Futaro asked, "You think she saw us working out?"

Nino's eyes lit up, "You work out?"

Yotsuba shook her head, "No, this was before that started. She was just making assumptions."

Nino threw her hands up in a cross, "Time out. Go back, like, however far back you have to go. What the hell is happening?"

Futaro glanced her way, "Ah, right. There's that too. I asked her to help me exercise."

"I'm tutoring him back!" Yotsuba said proudly.

"She can be cruel."

Nino glared at him and Futaro wondered if this was their new normal. "You're telling me everything later. Got it?"

"Deal," he said, expecting nothing less. He held out his hand, silently asking for her phone. Nino handed it over and he scrutinized the picture, "Well it's out there now. We should tell your sisters before they find out through their phones, it'd be better that way."

Nino paled and sipped her coffee for a long time. Futaro shifted to ask Yotsuba, but she'd done the same, so that the two looked like reflections in a mirror. The quintuplets should consider show business, he imagined some plucky magician would put their flawless parallels to good use. He said, "Okay, out with it."

Yotsuba asked Nino, "He really doesn't know?"

"Not a clue."

"Not even about Miku?"

"He's as much a space case as she is. You didn't tell him about it?"

"Does it look like I told him anything?"

Futaro growled and asked, "What's this got to do with Miku? I've waited long enough for an answer."

Yotsuba looked at him in awe, "Wow, Futaro. You have an idiot point after all."

Nino almost grinned through her melancholy, "More than one, I promise."

Futaro waited with all the patience of a flock of birds competing for the kindly old man's breadcrumbs, which wasn't much at all. "Come on, get on with it already."

Nino leaned in, "Remember how Miku wanted a book picked especially for her?"

"Yeah."

Yotsuba continued, "And how Ichika keeps pushing boxes of treats your way?"

"Uh-huh."

Nino asked, "Why do you think they do that."

"They're my friends. Miku trusts my tastes and Ichika is being kind."

"No." Nino said.

"Yes." Futaro replied.

Yotsuba's mouth opened in astonishment, as if he'd shapeshifted into a long-neglected imaginary friend, "Wow."

Nino concurred, "See? He's stubborn as a traffic jam in the holidays, nothing new gets through."

"Is that so. Enlighten me, then. Be my tutor."

Nino leaned in and tongued four letters: L. O. V. E.

The events of the last two weeks, and particularly this evening, have loosened Futaro's understanding of his own humanity like a child first learning to run, but he was a long way from his first marathon. His mind was a wonderful machine of prediction, ready to lump every experience into its proper folder in the great library of the mind. Everything properly labeled and stored for later use, and never to move without his explicit permission. He did this for everything: facts, theories, conundrums, relationships and beyond. He was still learning the hard way how far the latter was out of his absolute control. Relationships were a two-way street, and his have been limited to his family, unbreakable for life, for so long he saw no reason to think of them differently. But with others outside that unbreakable sphere, they were changeable, dynamic, and always flowing both ways.

Miku and Ichika, and the rest too, were his students. Then his partners. Then his friends. Yes, he thought he could call them that now. Or he thought so, he desperately wanted to think that's all they would be. But the sisters had changed those flexible definitions on their own, without his permission or, apparently, his notice. He should have learned with Nino this was the norm, not the exception. But hadn't Nino always been his exception? Why would this fundamental aspect of human interaction be any different? But it was, oh it was, and it was a disaster.

His mind poured through its folders marked 'Ichika' and 'Miku' and recalled every memory in a historic flood to wipe clean the pungent stables of assumption. He thought back to every look of appreciation, every embarrassed blush, every little kindness and every quiet request he'd thought of as normal between friends, and now, knowing what he might find, he saw it: the hope, the desire, the love. It was devastating.

Futaro leaned back and said, "Tell me you're kidding."

Nino, who'd enjoyed watching the dawning of realization spread over his face to give way to horror, shook her head, "I can't lie to you, darling Fuu." Darn her, did she have to enjoy this so much!?

He turned to Yotsuba as a dying man in the desert turns to an oasis, but that hope was equally a mirage. She said, "All true, don't you know? You're a popular guy."

"That's not possible."

"You're good at everything else. It makes sense you'd be good at dating too."

"Eh," Nino mused, rocking a steady hand like a ship rolling on the waves, earning a sharp giggle from Yotsuba.. Futaro glared, Nino might blame him for keeping Yotsuba in the loop, but look how happy she was at having someone to complain to.

Futaro fumed, "Anything else I should know about?"

Yotsuba asked, "Like what?" Futaro continued glaring at her until she got the point. She squirmed and said, "What, me? No! No no no no no! We're not like that, I swear!"

"Good," Nino said, hinting irritation.

Futaro nodded, "And Itsuki?"

Nino asked, "Definitely not, she told me. I remember a distinctive 'ew' being said."

Futaro nodded and mused, "So three out of the five of you. What a mess."

"Why do you have to say it like that?"

Yotsuba mused, "He's always upset when he gets anything less than a perfect score."

Futaro said through grit teeth, "That has nothing to do with this!"

Nino warned, "It better not."

Yotsuba backed off, "It's a joke guys, a joke!"

Nino rolled her eyes and looked at Futaro, "So that's why I didn't want them knowing. Not yet."

"Until when, then?" he asked.

"Until the right moment." She knit her fingers and bowed her head into her hands, "I don't know when, I just knew I'd tell everyone when the time was right."

Futaro said, "Well, it better be soon."

Nino tightened her grip, "I know," she said mournfully, then hardened, "So let's do it."

"Right now?"

She stood resolute, "Yeah, right now. Let's go!"

She grabbed her half-empty coffee and made to leave, and freezing in a cold snap at her first step. Her body went rigid in place as if and released from the flow of time. All she needed was a burst of energy, a bundle he could see set ready to unleash itself in her with but a meager hint at permission. But she hesitated. Futaro saw a shadow in her, a fear he somehow felt he could understand, but remained ineffably buried in the blackness of her eyes. It was a ghoul hidden from sight snaring her initiative in its powerful fingers, leaving only the fear and doubt. And Futaro could guess why. She felt the same fear he felt for his own relationships: a fear of losing control of what she loved.

Futaro stood and moved closer to her, grabbing her shoulders as he softly said her name. She couldn't look at him, her eyes still focused on what lay ahead.

"Nino, we have to go."

She whispered, "I know."

"Maybe we don't."

Futaro turned to Yotsuba, "What do you mean?"

Yotsuba pulled up her phone and the incriminating post, "See this? No one's retweeted this yet. It isn't trending."

Futaro asked, "Retweeting?"

"It means it isn't spreading, most of our class is asleep and will probably miss it. If it doesn't spread, they never have to know. At least not through this."

Futaro said, "Okay, but we need to tell them."

"But now? In the middle of the night? Why don't you wait until after class, or lunch even, and tell them one at a time?"

"What if someone brings it up before us? Anyone who sees it is going to think it's you instead of Nino."

"So let them! We play it off. Letting them think it for a day isn't going to hurt anyone. I can play the part if anyone asks me, since no one ever talks to you!" She looked to Nino and lowered her voice, softening it like an ointment, "And it'll let you tell them how you want. What do you say?"

Nino didn't say anything for a moment, but she visibly softened as if the ghoul's grip was peeled away by an angel's divine touch. Yotsuba's plan gave her back just enough control to accept. "Let's check the post in the morning. If it still isn't spreading, then maybe."

Futaro took her hand and gripped it. She looked up at him with so many questions. She was as uncertain as their first night over the cake shop after revealing her mother's tumultuous feelings for her second child. What doubts he had about the plan faded under her look, if this gave her a measure of comfort, what did risk matter? "Okay, let's do it."

Yotsuba smiled with all the confidence he lacked. "We'll head back then, the others are still asleep. See you tomorrow?"

"Sounds good. See you, Yotsuba." He turned to Nino, his grip on her hand pulsing like a heartbeat, "I'll see you too."

"Yeah," she said lowly. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, ignoring Yotsuba's gasp. Nino leaned in and hugged him goodbye, and then left for uncertainty.

Futaro had time to mull over the night on his walk home, but his track record for deciphering riddles of relationship grew ever worse by the time he stepped inside. He saw his futon already prepped on the floor, a loving gift from his attentive sister. He could have ended his night there, but the unanswerable question would linger. So he turned to the man who seemed to have all the answers.

His father grunted as he shook him, "Wha?"

"Dad, it's me."

"What time is it?"

"Past one."

"Already? Coulda sworn I set the-"

"In the morning."

"Ah. And you up for, bud?"

"Can we talk outside?"

"About?"

"Please."

The magic word had a sobering affect of his father, his eyes sharpening like light through a magnifying glass. "Gimme a minute." His father threw on a coat and the two headed outside. He leaned on the railing and asked, "What's up?"

Futaro didn't have a well-formed question to ask, more of a concept, so he told father everything, the entire story of tonight and what its revelation meant for all the past nights with the Nakanos. His father listened stone-faced, either from concentration or exhaustion, but he listened well. When Futaro finished in the same place they found themselves now, he asked, "So what do you think? Are we doing the right thing?"

"Keeping it quiet until tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"No idea."

Futaro blinked, "Nothing?"

"What? It's a tough one."

Futaro sighed, "Yeah, guess it is. I should've seen this coming. It should never have been a secret."

"And you won't do any good ruminating over it now. You made your choice, all that's left is to see how it plays out."

"But is this the best way? Or should we have told them tonight. I don't know."

"Sometimes there isn't a right answer."

"Not what I'm looking for."

"Hear me out, I know why you're coming to me with this. I'm glad you can admit that there are some things you can't figure out on your own. It's good that you're seeing that now, Futaro. But you still think there's always one right way of doing things, and if you can just figure it out, everything'll fall in line."

"There's always a best case, at least. I just want to know this is the right one."

"Aye, and the best laid often always go awry. You can pick the perfect path and still have everything go wrong, you can never know how it'll turn out. That's the hard truth, Futaro. Sometimes the unknown stays that way."

Futaro grumbled, "I was afraid you'd say something like that."

"It's easy in school, isn't it? You study, you pass. You study more, you get a perfect score. Predictable. Nothing you do after this will follow that simple logic. Uncertainty is the only certainty in life, so you're going to have to learn to live with it."

Only two weeks ago he'd have stormed away and thrown his father's words in the mental recycling bin. But his words had proved almost prophetic before, so he mulled them over, scavanging for a hidden meaning. His father saw this and slugged his shoulder, "Hey, stop being so serious. You had a good night, don't let this ruin it. You'll take it in stride."

"Will I?" Futaro asked so quickly it surprised him. "What would you have done, if you were me?"

"I would've told them long ago, but you can't blame yourselves for that."

"I mean now, if you were me, would you be doing the same thing?"

His father eyed him mischievously, "Who knows? I guess we'll find out." And Futaro knew he wouldn't tell him more, he wouldn't place his own expectations on his son, not now. He turned and moved to head inside, then paused, "You're definitely my son."

"What?"

"You talk with five girls in five years and three of them fell in love with you. Good odds, my boy."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"I can't wait to tell Raiha."

"Don't you dare!"

"No secrets!" His father laughed and opened the door.

_**~Nino~**_

The dreaded dawn. A sunrise on the last day of tranquility in the home. Nino lay buried in her sheets like an egg in an incubator and watched its radiance rise thought the window. Every centimeter it inched its way higher. Soon it would reach its apex and begin its journey over the horizon. And between all that would be the moment she tested her sisterhood. Every centimeter of light was the inevitable crawling a little bit closer. She curled herself tighter in her blanket as if to hide from the ominous incandescence.

"Nino, get up. We're leaving in half an hour," Itsuki said though the crack in the sliding door.

Nino pushed herself up and shed her shield. The sunlight felt surprisingly cool on her freshly hatched skin. She checked her phone and found the post. It was no longer completely unnoticed, having been retweeted thrice, but it appeared to be buried in the news of the morning. She hoped it would stay that way.

Nino changed and joined her sisters in the living room. She saw plated sausages and bowls of rice topped with raw eggs waiting for them. "Who made this?"

"I did," Yotsuba said from the kitchen while washing a skillet, one of several cookware lying about waiting for their turn in the sink.

Ichika said, "She was already at it when I got up."

Yotsuba laughed lamely, "I was up early, I didn't sleep well." Nino wondered if anyone else caught the uncertainty lying in her words.

Miku sat and said, "Futaro isn't going to be happy when he hears that."

Yotsuba grinned, "Oh, he's probably got something more serious on his mind."

Miku asked, "Like the mock exams."

"Right! So let's eat up and be ready to do our best!"

Ichika smiled, "I wish I had your optimism, it's infectious."

"You could use it," Itsuki muttered, looking at her phone.

"Why's that?" Nino asked, a looming sense of dread wrapping her like a mummy for burial.

Itsuki turned her phone and showed them a post, "Check this out, Ichika. You're famous."

Ichika took the phone and her eyes blew up, "Oh, no."

Itsuki grinned, "I'm not even going to count how many posts there are. Looks like your movie's a hit with the classmates. You'll be riding the waves of adoring fans, I think."

Nino breathed in relief, she went unnoticed next to Ichika's well-disguised chagrin. Ichika smiled thinly through her discomfort, "Ah, won't that just be lovely." She lifted her purse and checked inside. Itsuki adroitly shuck up beside her and reached inside, removing a handful of accessories. "Hey!"

"No hiding today, or they'll come after us."

Miku said, "They'll do that anyways, half of them still can't tell us apart."

Nino felt a sudden explosion of hope. Ichika's movie, of course! That'd be the talk of the school, at least for the day! Couple gossip was so common as to be boring, but a movie star would steal everyone's attention! She looked at Yotsuba, who also wore her relief a little too obviously.

The food tasted much better without the noose resting around her neck. Nino was able to settle into her normal rapport among her sisters, joining Itsuki in her relentless teasing of Ichika's infectious fanbase that was sure to show her plenty of love today. It was a very good meal to begin their day.

It would be their last for a long time.

She threw on her makeup with practiced padding and strokes with more joy than she'd awoken with. The challenge of confessing her romance didn't seem so daunting now, maybe Ichika's chaos would soften her up for the blow. She was hopeful as she divided the lunchboxes she'd made yesterday morning, performing her familial role as comfortably as ever.

The walk to school would be the last uneventful activity of the day. The moment they reached the lockers and took out their school shoes, whispers were already buzzing by their ears. Nino spotted a few pointed fingers and hushed words, those who knew were spreading the word that someone in their school had debuted on the big screen. No one had stepped forward to interrupt their morning routine yet, but it was only a matter of time, a pot on the stove just waiting to boil over.

Ichika announced she needed to use the restroom and Nino volunteered to join her. They split up, Nino and Ichika making way to the lavatory and the rest headed to class.

"You see their eyes on me?"

"On us. Don't give them too much credit."

"Even with the hair-"

"-the accessories-"

"-your glare-"

"-the, wait, what?"

Ichika just grinned and carried on.

They ventured into the restroom and Ichika found a stall. Nino was waiting for her to finish when the door burst open. She turned and saw a pair of girls staring at her. One giggled and nudged her friend, who said, "Excuse me, Nakano?"

"Yeah?"

"We just wanted to say," she giggled and her friend pushed her again, "that your movie was awesome!"

"Huh?" Nino glanced back at the stall, door shut tight. "Ah, yeah, that."

"Were you at the premiere? I saw the trailer but didn't realize it was you!"

Nino was certain these girls couldn't tell an antelope from an aardvark, but she let it pass and played her part, "Well I wasn't in it for long, so it's not surprising. I'm heading back to class. Walk with me?" She led them out of the restroom and left Ichika to a sliver of quiet.

They happily chatted her heels off on the way to class and she humored their lively questioning all the way. A few more students, two girls and one boy, joined her entourage before she finally reached the classroom door. She turned and said, "Well, time to hit the books. It's been fun. Oh, and one more thing," she leaned in and leered, "I'm Nino, her sister." She let the revelation trickle their faces pink before wagging her fingers in farewell and entering her class.

She passed Futaro's desk on the way in, his eyes were on her, having seen the very end of things. His big brain probably fit the pieces together. She tapped his desk lightly in passing and flicked her hair to flash her earrings at him before taking her seat near the back.

Miku perked up behind her, "They did the same thing to me."

"What about Yotsuba, or Itsuki?"

Miku pointed to Yotsuba up front. She was frantic as a jackrabbit prepping the room for the day, "Even they couldn't confuse her for Ichika. I think they had to guess between Itsuki and me, and they chose me."

"What'd you do?"

"Turned my music up."

Nino laughed and gave her a high five, which Miku meekly returned, "Nice one."

The minutes ticked by and Ichika still hadn't arrived. Futaro and Yotsuba were ready to call the class to attention when Ichika finally bolted through the door, saying, "Sorry, sorry. Got a little held up."

Yotsuba said, "It's okay, go ahead, we're just about to begin." Ichika took the long way around the pair to her desk and took her seat.

Lecture followed its usual pattern of mundanity. Nino struggled against old patterns of indifference and inattentiveness ingrained by years of shifting priorities. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, especially not Futaro, at least not yet, but she had a dream. She was going to pass her exams with flying colors, or bar that, acceptable colors, and join Futaro at University. It was a long shot, she knew that better than anyone, even him, but she was ready for the challenge. She wasn't letting him go now. So she focused as best she could, taking notes like Futaro taught her against her will, using it as the chisel to carve herself a place at his University.

The air was alive with tension just waiting to be broken. Students' eyes dashed greedily towards Ichika who could no longer escape their attention. The clock ticked patiently, apathetic to Ichika's growing torment, towards the first bell. And when it chimed, ending their first period of the day, the tension snapped like a catapult firing its deathly cargo. They surrounded the young actress and exclaimed their astonishment, their envy and their well-wishes with all the urgency the young always possess. Ichika had readied herself for the onslaught and took it with grace, slowly working her way through the circle, focusing on a person at a time instead of the crowd. Nino wondered if her manager had coached her for this. He probably had, he carried her this far and seemed to know what he was doing.

Itsuki slid up to her desk and whispered, "I'm afraid to leave, everyone will think I'm her."

"I know! She was in the stall when they took me for her! She's lucky I was there to distract them."

"Really? In the toilet?"

"I know! What happened to propriety!?"

"The price of fame," Itsuki grimaced and glanced to her sister, "I don't envy her. Do you?"

"Maybe a little."

"No way."

"Just a little!" Nino groaned and slid into her chair. But it was true, it must be nice to have strangers look at you so kindly. People Ichika barely knew were loving her.

"Itsuki," Ichika said after breaking through her crowd, "Can you come with me to the toilet?"

Itsuki sighed, "Alright," she stood and waved Nino goodbye. The two took off, and Nino wished them a quiet restroom visit. She wondered if Ichika had brought Itsuki along as another doppelganger so she could use the toilet in peace.

She glanced at Futaro, her boyfriend's nose was already brushing the pages of his study guide. She saw Takeda say something in passing, going completely over Futaro's head. He sighed and went back to his seat. She returned to her notes until the next period began. Right before it did, Itsuki and Ichika returned from the restroom. Itsuki was noticeably stiffer than before and Nino wondered what she had to do to keep Ichika's relief a private affair. She planned to ask at their next break.

Only she didn't have to ask. A soon as second period ended, Itsuki asked her, "Can I talk with you?"

Nino said, "Sure, what's up?"

Itsuki dragged her chair to Nino's desk and sat. As she did, Nino felt a warning that whatever was to come would be unpleasant. It was one of Itsuki's lingering traits, she radiated concern when she felt it like a leaking Soviet nuclear plant, infecting everyone downwind with her worry and her empathy. It was a powerful balm after whatever unpleasantness has passed, or a premonition of disaster before it came.

"I don't really know how to say this."

Nino bit her lip and waited, paralyzed with what she new must be coming.

"Last break, Ichika told me something, about Uesugi and Yotsuba. See, it turns out, they're together." Itsuki waited for some reaction, Nino had none to give. Horror is Botox to expression. Itsuki continued, "We don't know for how long, but it looks like it's been going on for a while."

Nino found the muscles to her mouth and asked, "How does she know?"

"Before first period, when you drew those girls away, she stayed in the stall to avoid anyone else. She was scrolling her feed and saw, well, someone posted something."

Nino's mind shifted into higher gear as panic beat in her chest. She stood and scanned the class, "Where's Ichika?"

"She asked me to tell you, she took Miku to-Nino?"

Nino bolted through the classroom doors and stormed the halls. She picked a direction and moved with enough haste to turn heads, and not because of her likeness to a face on the silver screen. She hated having to search at random, leaving a quick reunion to chance. It was leaving this to chance in the first place that got her into this boiling mess. She told herself that if she could just make it before Ichika told Miku, it would...but what would it change? The news was out, and spreading through her family. What good would controlling the fire when the living room was already embers? But it had to start somewhere, she felt she had to seize whatever was left to grasp.

She found them by the lockers. She knew at a glance she arrived too late. Miku kept a thin plane of glass between the world and her introversion. Her eyes were always somewhere off in the distance. But there was confidence in her isolation, a sense of assuredness in herself that sprung from her soul like a well. That well was dry now, and her eyes were empty like two stars burning off into darkness. Those lifeless orbs sucked Nino into them and shared her sudden hopelessness and despair.

Itsuki caught up to her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Hey, it's okay. We're all here now."

"Guys?" Yotsuba called as she entered the room, "What'd you all leave for? I saw you run out like a cat racing for the..." Yotsuba's peppy monologue gave way to uncertainty when she saw how her sisters were looking at her. She caught Nino and she knew Yotsuba could see the shocked defeat, and the fear, that must be inside her.

Ichika finally turned, she was smiling. It was full of warmth and appreciation and understanding. It was a lie. An act. No one but them would be able to see the falsehood Ichika displayed to her younger sister, but she felt it, and feared what hid behind it. Ichika refused to show them, any of them, her true self.

"We're fine here. You should head back."

Yotsuba quivered, then laughed lamely, "Ah, I see. I, ah," she glanced to Nino. Did she hope she would save her? She should have. Nino had the truth ready on the tip of her tongue, ready to regain whatever control was left. But her lips rebelled and hugged each other tightly to keep the truth hidden. She tried to speak, oh she tried, but she couldn't. The truth stuck to her tongue like thick honey.

Yotsuba seemed to understand. She bowed her head and said, "In that case, I'll be going." She turned and left on a lonely walk to the classroom. Nino knew she would carry the shame of letting her go.

Itsuki took her hand, squeezing it gently as she said, "Let's head back, nothing more to do now." Ichika was already on her way. She winked at Nino, hinting at that shared bond in rejection. Miku followed as meekly as a kitten, lost to the outside world. And Nino could only follow in a stupor of her own, wondering how her voice had failed her so completely.

Third period. Her notebook grew no fuller as their teacher droned onward about history, old warlords and wars in the sea. None of that mattered to her anymore, a stream of dead men and places she'd never see. And she felt that burden on each of her sisters across the room, a muffled cry of frustration just waiting for air. And Yotsuba at the front acted oblivious to it all. She wasn't as good an actress as Ichika, she could see her shoulders stiff as concrete, waiting with dread for the next bell.

When that bell came releasing them for lunch, Nino watched enviously as Futaro left for the cafeteria, somehow oblivious to the cascade burying the Nakano sisters. Yotsuba volunteered to take some papers to the staff room for their teacher, an excellent excuse to avoid her family. Nino was vaguely aware of Itsuki leading her to the cafeteria with the others, evidently intent on making sure her family still made an effort to eat. She sat with her three sisters as they opened her lunchboxes. She saw Futaro by himself in the corner fiddling with another ring of flashcards. She envied his ability to get lost in his passions. There was no escape for her.

They began eating in silence, each either unwilling or unsure how to break the discomfort. They'd barely taken their first bites when Nino noticed Yotsuba tepidly approaching their table. She kept her distance like a scared child in a petting zoo, raising her lunchbox hopefully and asking, "Hey, room for one more?"

Ichika smiled as she'd practiced so many times for a camera and said, "I'm sorry, I don't think there is." She said it without a hint of malice, but it hung in the air like a toxin, or a miasma threatening to choke them.

Yotsuba lowered her head, "Oh, I see."

Miku's head was bowed over her food. She took a chunk of rice and nibbled it as a sloth munching on leaves. If Miku were shrinking, collapsing into herself like a black hole, Itsuki was her opposite, a simmering cauldron of anger. Yotsuba's perceived courtship was a betrayal, and her presence was a knife twisting in the wound. She said heatedly, "You should go, Yotsuba."

Yotsuba couldn't meet her eyes, nodding in acquiescence and turning like a beaten dog.

The sight of her retreating form was too much for Nino, the unjustness of their circumstance like a rock pressing into her chest, suffocating her with every second she didn't push back. In a fury she rose from her seat, her chair skidding on the floor like a call to arms. She had her confession poised in her throat ready to fire like a cannon on the high seas, and then…

And then, silence. Yotsuba continued walking away and she could say nothing. Because she saw the looks her sisters gave Yotsuba and knew she couldn't bear them accusing her, she just couldn't stand it. Those were the eyes of rejection and repudiation. They were her mother's glare. They all had their mother's eyes, but that was her mother's glare. The very glare she punished her second daughter with in her darkest moments of doubt, when the strain of her burden threatened to crush her and her hidden feeling came to surface for air. Nino could stand the world against her and her family, she could bear it with the poise of Atlas as he bore the weight of the Earth, anything as long as it came from without. But she couldn't suffer her sisters looking at her that way. Not like mother. Not again. And so she condemned Yotsuba to carry her burden with her silence like a curse, a curse on both of them.

Futaro noticed her squeaking chair and turned to see what was going on. He must have put the pieces together, it wouldn't be hard. A dejected Yotsuba, a stunned, silent Nino, a sullen Miku and a fuming Itsuki. The secret was out of control. But he didn't hesitate like her, he was unbound by the bonds that held Nino's tongue. He hurried after Yotsuba, who broke into a run as soon as she was through the door.

"She should've just sat with him," Ichika mused, dropping her play just enough to let in a hint of mockery.

Nino felt a hand grab hers, "Sit," Miku said. And Nino obeyed. She didn't have the voice to refuse. The sisters continued eating their meal, but Nino's appetite vanished with her voice. And in its place was a tumor eating her from the inside. With time it would grow, until it was too large to remove without scars.

Nino set down her chopsticks and stood, "I need to go," was all she said to her perplexed sisters. But they let her go, consigning her behavior to a broken heart. And it was broken, but not for a boy. She had to find her sister and make this right. She couldn't talk with them, but she'd find her voice with Yotsuba.

_**~Yotsuba~**_

She thrust her legs out and leaned back as she hung at the apex, waiting for the fall. And as gravity took her she cut through the wall of rain like a machete through the jungle. She loved this part the most, the fall forward and the climb higher, higher, higher than before to see above everything that was hidden with feet on the ground. Then she tucked herself tight like a stone and plunged back to the earth, back to where it all began, and rushed through that unseen barrier like a runaway train. Repeat, ad infinitum. She knew she should stop, either from the rain or the looming threat of the bell. But she couldn't. In the swing, all her worries could fall away, like tears in rain. It was her haven, a place everyone her age claimed to have grown beyond. She didn't, she clung to it like so many other things from childhood and made it her own. All for her. Nothing was supposed to bother her here.

But the swing had another, special meaning for her. This was the ground of her first great triumph over her sisters. It was also the last.

She'd loved being the same, once. Hadn't they all? Completely interchangeable, that's what quintuplets were. They could share clothes, toys, friends, even their names if they wanted to and no one outside their little circle would know. Absolutely alike, that's what strangers would say, charmingly identical. Except, that wasn't entirely true. Whenever Mother had introduced them to strangers, she'd gone in order: Ichika, Nino, Miku, Yotsuba, and Itsuki. A stranger could always be so excited when she began, but it was a long list. By the time they reached her they always had this look in their eye, a tinge of impatience, as if they were ready to move on to the next oddity. Because that's what they were to everyone else, an amusement. Strange. And so they clung to each other and their Mother, the only place their meaning had any value was with themselves.

But there, they were not equal. It was Miku who spoke their first word: apple. Nino was the first to stand. Each of her sisters reached some milestone first, but mother never mentioned Yotsuba being first at anything. And from childhood their strengths only continued to diverge. Everyone seemed to grow special in their own way, except for her. Yotsuba always trailed behind.

That changed at the swings. Their mother brought them to the park one day when they were five and showed them how to swing. There were only four seats, so they had to take turns. Yotsuba offered to wait her turn and watched her sisters try to mimic their mother. They thrashed their legs, straightening flat as boards, and did little more than make the chains wiggle like worms. Then Itsuki leaned too far, her hands slipped from the chains and she tumbled the short distance from her seat to the woodchips. She cried as sharp as a squealing violin and their mother came running to tend to her. As she carried her to the bench, Yotsuba watched silently as her mother doted on her favorite daughter, then shifted to the empty swing.

She climbed in on her own, grabbing the chains and hopping into the seat. She felt it sink around her, almost gripping her bottom. She envisioned her mother rocking back, forth, and shifted her body to do the same. She tried it once, twice, and to her amazement she was moving! She went forward, backwards, and farther every time! The chains creaked with every pendulation and she felt like she could fly!

"Mommy! Yotsuba's got it!" Miku cried. Her mother, who's fingers were combing Itsuki's hair for the wound, looked up and saw her fourth, her most unremarkable daughter, flying. Yotsuba looked back and saw the briefest hint of wonder, then joy. Just once, it was all for her.

It was the first and last time her mother looked at her that way. It was a once-in-a-lifetime look of unconstrained love and pride, a height Yotsuba never achieved again. And how she'd tried. She'd tried to be the best, the smartest, the cleverest. All her efforts never moved her to the front of the pack. She was always trailing behind her sisters in this subject or that, someone was always better than her. But all this effort paid off in an unexpected area: her endurance. Yotsuba pushed herself harder than anyone in her family to make up for her perceived shortcomings. Her perseverance carried into every part of her life, and where it failed to improve her in the classroom, overtime it shaped her body until she was different from the others. She could run faster, and longer, than the rest. At last she could pull away on her own. Her mother was as supportive as she could be, but she was an academic, she valued the mind, not the body, and her praise followed her bias. Yotsuba's physical achievements were always praised halfheartedly by her mother.

And then she died. Her daughters were left to pick up the pieces of a life without her. Everyone slowly stretched into her arms and her legs. But what could she do that someone else couldn't do better? What did she have to give her family? She gave the only thing she had: her strength. She carried their burdens, physical and emotional, and shared her persistence and her joy when they had none of their own. But it never felt like enough. It paled compared to Nino's relentless housekeeping, Ichika's unbiased support, and Itsuki's attentive ear and loving belief. It still felt like she was trailing behind. Her sisters are moving ahead of her and she can never catch up. She worries that one day they'll be too far to see, and she'll be lost. Abandoned to be never enough.

That was to be her fate a year ago when her teacher told her she'd failed. She couldn't meet her school's academic standards and would have to transfer. She saw that as the end, her sisters disappearing over the horizon. She had pictured their disappointment, and even their disgust with her. She imagined they blamed her for breaking apart their sisterhood by failing to keep up. Except her sisters noticed her lagging behind, and when she fell too far, they turned around and came back for her. They sacrificed friendships, stability, all to keep her on the path. And they never brought up her failure, or made her feel guilty for it. Not once.

How does one repay such kindness and love? How do you say thank you for sacrificing so mich? With the same in equal measures. So she redoubled her support of her sisters, never hesitating to carry their burdens in the name of sisterhood. If they were adamant in staying together, she would prop them up as high as she could. If she was destined to follow in their footsteps, then she'd be right at their backs when they hesitated, giving them the push they needed to succeed. If they fell, she'd catch up and carry them until they could walk on their own.

That's why she volunteered to keep Nino's secret today. It was just another burden to carry, repayment for everything Nino had done for her. And when it all came apart, she did her best to stay rigid and keep her sister safe from the storm. She'd felt blowback for her efforts before. But this had been different. Itsuki, Ichika, Miku, they took it much worse than she'd imagined. They cut her off like a limb, ostracizing her from their loving circle, the only one she'd had. And looking at Nino, knowing how she'd take it if they were directed at her, Yotsuba took it. That was her role. It was all she could give.

Except, those eyes, the anger and the disappointment, were exactly what she'd expected when she'd been expelled. They weren't nonexistent, only delayed, and it was this news about a boy that brought it out. And now Yotsuba knew there was a limit to their love for her, and it could be lost. It would be lost, someday, when they grew tired of waiting for her. To see it, even if it was temporary to hide the truth, hurt more than a thousand zeroes on a thousand tests. It hurt more than cavities and scrapes and bruises and broken legs. It just hurt.

So she swung away in the rain, and hoped the looks would disappear from her memory. They didn't. They only burrowed deeper. Their love had a limit, someday they wouldn't look back for her. And then she'd be alone. A burden to no one. Unexceptional.

She fell back and up and waited for gravity to take her, and gasped when she felt hands on her back pushing her forward.

"You're a pain to find, you know that?" Futaro said.

Yotsuba felt trapped, caught in Medusa's stare and turning to stone. She fell back and Futaro pushed her again.

"I almost gave myself a heart attack trying to keep up with you, and that was just to the school gates. You're lucky I thought about this place."

She opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out. She was afraid of what she'd say.

"So I guess the secret's out. But why come all the way out here?"

He had to wait a long while for her answer. She felt his hands at her back each time she fell back, patiently expecting her answer. She finally said, "I want to be alone." She hoped he understood, and left.

"You couldn't do that at school?" She shook her head. "Why not? You're gonna be soaked through for the rest of the day."

Her body was clammy and numb, she barely felt the cold anymore, just a tingling pressure all over her skin.

Futaro asked, "Did you hear me?" She hoped silence was a clear hint for him to leave her alone. He was good at puzzles. He should figure it out.

Suddenly he grasped the chains and broke the pendulum. Yotsuba gasped as Futaro stepped in front of her with his next retort primed on his tongue. But it died as he saw her face. Whatever he saw, her expression, or something deeper, it shattered whatever he had to say, derailed whatever train carried his thoughts, his face falling in shocked uncertainty. Yotsuba looked away under his chilling eyes. She felt open, vulnerable, like being caught naked in a changing room. It was like he was seeing behind her eyes into her memories, seeing her for exactly what she was, and shocked at how little there was to find. It was an emptiness no one was supposed to see.

Futaro's hair clung to his head like a depressed bathroom mat. It curtained his eyes, frozen in place as he processed what he was seeing. Seconds, minutes, all concepts of time fade away into moments when the mind frees itself from the clock's control. That's what she and Futaro had, a moment of understanding.

"Come on," Futaro suddenly said as he took her hand, "We're going back." And in her mourning-induced fatigue she doesn't resist being dragged across the playground, across the block and through the school gates.

Futaro took her to the changing room, ducking in just long enough to return with a handful of towels. She took one and toweled herself off. Yotsuba hid under her towel as she dried her hair and breathed, bringing it all back. The cheery girl everyone expected to see. She emerged with a small grin, "Thanks, but I was doing alright out there, you know."

Futaro's expression didn't change, he'd seen the real her, the girl only good for running, lifting and swinging. What good was that to anyone?

Futaro toweled his own hair long after it was dried, stealing time to draw out the silence. Then he looked at her and tried to speak, then shook his head and thought again. Words always came easy to Futaro, they were bullets in his bandoleer always ready for action. Yet now he worked them carefully, trying to find the ones that expressed thoughts he'd never shared.

Then he told her, "I've never had a lot of close friends, not even as a kid. I think, I was always trying to be somebody else. Someone cool. And the other kids saw right through me. So I decided it wasn't important and stopped caring what other people thought of me. So I'm sorry if that means I'm not a very good friend myself."

Yotsuba waved it off, "It's fine, it's-"

"No, let me finish."

"Really, Nino must be-"

"No! I, well, just listen. I want to say this." Futaro swallowed and tried again, "I know I need to be better, because you've set the bar incredibly high. And I don't know if you feel the same, but I," Futaro coughed, and Yotsuba caught a blush, "Well, you're the best friend I've ever had. Or, have. And I want to get it right. So, whatever happens, I'll be at your side, too."

Futaro blushed and shook his head, unsatisfied with his choice of words. Yotsuba disagreed, she thought they were perfect. More than perfect. It was exactly what she'd been looking for.

"But first I need to go and make this right. Let me do that."

Yotsuba nodded, smiling, genuinely this time, "Yeah, go. I'll be waiting."

Futaro clumsily detached himself from her and ran through the hall to the cafeteria. Yotsuba was left on her own once more. Only, it felt different. Warmer. Someone came back for her after all. He might even do it again. Maybe he'd seen something in her after all. Something she'd missed.

_**~Nino~**_

Was this a school or a maze!? No, a maze was too generous, this was a haystack the size of a...well, a building, but a haystack nonetheless, nothing but identical strands of hay concealing the precious needle. Or needles.

She hadn't caught sight of Futaro or Yotsuba, and she'd checked, oh how thoroughly she'd checked. Twice she'd scavanged these halls and empty classrooms and found nothing. She'd ducked into every restroom, and that meant every restroom. With the men's she'd crack the door and scream that if Futaro was inside he'd better finish whatever business he had and make himself seen. No response. That left the staff rooms, the ducts, and inside the walls. She was considering where to begin when Futaro finally responded to her text.

_Taken care of. Let's meet in front of the cafeteria._

Nino furiously responded, _WHERE ARE YOU!?_

_Soon to be in front of the cafeteria. With you._

_Fine_

When the rounded the corner and saw Futaro waiting outside the cafeteria doors, she launched at him, "Where have you been? Where's Yotsuba? And why are you all wet?"

Futaro checked his hair and grinned, "Were you looking for us?"

"Of course! Didn't you see my texts?"

"What texts?" Futaro checked his phone and frowned, "Ah, didn't see those."

"You texted me! How can you miss them?"

"I was, occupied."

Nino fumed, "Well pay attention next time."

"Yeah."

"So? How is she?"

"She's fine, I was with her."

"And?"

"And now I'm with you. And I know what we need to do." Futaro took her hand and looked at the door, "This has gone far enough, I want to set the record straight."

She grimaced, "I know."

"We can't avoid it, it'll only make things worse."

"I know."

"You don't look-"

"Futaro, I know." She fumed. She knew better than anyone, and now she knew what those consequences might look like. Her sisters were ready to go that far, to banish her. Like Yotsuba. She quietly repeated, "I know."

Futaro read her, he was getting better at that, and said, "It'll be alright."

She didn't know, so she didn't say so.

"You know the girl who posted it?"

"Yeah, she's sitting in front of my sisters."

"Let's start with her. Then we'll talk to the others."

"Okay."

"You need a minute?"

Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. None of which she had. She thought back to her breakfast with Yotsuba, Miku, Itsuki, Ichika. What she wouldn't give for just one more family meal in peace. She wondered when their next one would be, together, intact. She stared down the door separating her and this uncertain future. And then Futaro flexed his hand like a heartbeat and she remembered she wasn't alone. It banished those demons just enough to be brave and take that paralyzing first step, and proceed.

"Let's do this."

"Lead the way."

Together they pushed through the doors and stormed the cafeteria. Nino pointed to the poster, a girl in a group of five finishing her bento at the table. She kept blinking her eyes and rubbing them, trying to stay awake. They weren't the only ones who didn't get much sleep last night.

As they passed through the tables, Nino watched her sisters in the corner of her eye. Another pair of admirers were buzzing Ichika with questions as Itsuki munched on a croquette. Miku's back was to her, unmoving. Ichika caught sight of her sister across the hall and, thinking her on her way back to them, waved hello. Her arm was halfway up when she saw Nino's hand holding another, and froze when she saw who owned the hand. And for the first time that day in public, Ichika's careful public persona shattered, her mask falling to pieces to reveal unmitigated astonishment. Nino touched her earrings for Ichika to see.

"Hey!" Futaro called as they approached the girl.

She looked up, "Huh? Me?"

"Yeah. You screwed up."

The girl looked around, a few heads at nearby tables were turning to look at them, "Uh, what? Are you talking about the picture?"

Nino pointed at her and said irritably, "Yeah, you tagged the wrong girl!"

Futaro continued, "This is Nino, not Yotsuba. Try and get it right."

Nino said, "Go back and edit it, I'll text you my handle. Do it now."

The girl blinked, "Uh, sure, whatever. Sorry."

"Good." Futaro said.

"We'll be going then," Nino began, then whispered, "And thanks! It's a good shot."

The girl chuckled nervously, "You're welcome, I guess."

One task down. Now for the pain, the salt in the wound. Nino and Futaro approached her sisters. Ichika's recovery was worth an oscar nomination, her gentle smile was as natural as the flowers she tended on the windowsill at their old home. Itsuki showed all the emotion Ichika was hiding, she was a whirlpool of anger, confusion and hurt. Miku didn't move, she was as silent as a doll. It didn't matter if it was Yotsuba, or Nino, it only mattered that it wasn't her, her melancholy was unwavering.

Nino asked, "Can we sit here?"

Ichika nodded, "Sure," she began, then stood, "We were done anyways. Let's go."

Ichika took Miku's hand and guided the dispirited woman away. Itsuki glared a hundred questions and twice as many accusations into her, but said nothing. She just picked up her tray. Nino watched her sisters tear her heart out as they left her without looking back.

Futaro said, "They just need some time."

How much, she wondered. "I hope so. Either way, it's over." The secrets, the falsehoods, and her sisterhood as it used to be. She wondered what was left.

Ichika paused at the exit, then gathered their lunchboxes. Itsuki led Miku through the door as Ichika dropped them in the trash.

**A/N**

I'd like to expand on something in the last chapter's author's notes, regarding focusing the story around Nino as the central lead, with Futaro acting as deuteragonist. This might be done for one simple reasons: the cast consists of six central characters, Futaro and the quintuplets. In the manga, the story is tied around the uncertainty as to his future bride's identity. This facilitates Futaro's necessity as protagonist, as well as creating a powerful hook for the reader, making us invested in the mystery. We'd be much less interested if we knew her identity from the beginning, it's the novelty that in part keeps us reading. Now, the search is over, Nino won. The central conflict now comes from her dynamic with her sisters, and her Father. That's why this is becoming Nino's story more than Futaro's, the conflict is rooted in her. Therefore she is the main protagonist.

Regarding Yotsuba, I think the fandom at large envisioned her as having some insecurities and self-doubts long before the canon confirmed it. I was among them, and am interested in seeing that develop. And I figured that is how she would tie into this story as well. And to confirm, her relationship with Futaro is platonic, their feelings are platonic, and I don't think that's strange. I'd even argue it made sense all the way up until the revelation of their childhood meeting. I think if we all deserve a friend like her, and Futaro's lucky enough to be that.

How we deal with rejection says a lot about our characters. Any damage to the ego cuts off empathy and respect, and even love. I can see that happening here, for different reasons with the sisters. We haven't had a perspective segment for any of them yet, so we don't fully comprehend their own feelings regarding this. But it should be plain that they're wounded in their own ways. How that is handled, I believe, makes an interesting tale.

This marks my longest chapter yet, and I don't plan on making it a trend. I'd considered splitting it in two, but couldn't find a reasonable bisecting point, so I kept it whole. I'll begin work on the next one shortly for publishing in two weeks. Thank you for reading, and please review.

Chapter published August 8th, 2019.


	16. Shattered Sisterhood

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****6**

**Shattered Sisterhood**

**~Nino~**

The scene that would forever shape the Nakanos' lives was stupendous, cracking the foundation of their careful little world. She saw how small that world was by how ineffectually those ripples of calamity broke against her peers. What was a world-shaking event for six was a minor curiosity to those positioned within earshot by fate, and utterly inconsequential to everyone else. Even the captor of that dreadful, beloved picture Nino had already saved to her phone had lost interest in the pair the moment they'd left her table. They were an amusing paragraph in the chapter of her day, and a footnote in everyone else's, if that.

Amid a sea of indifference, it's easy to feel alone, hiding a torrent of confusion and anguish behind placid indifference. That brief gap of air between her and the student body felt as wide as The Red Sea, and her without a boat to cross it, or a savior to part it. It was lonely in the land of the slaves, lost in despair, watching her kin desert her to the Pharaoh of abandonment.

And then he squeezed her hand and she remembered she shouldn't feel alone. He looked at her with eyes saying he understood. It was a lie. An innocent lie. He couldn't know. But he wanted to share that grief he couldn't understand. Stupid Futaro, you don't know nearly as much as you think.

"It'll be okay, they'll come around."

He made it sound so easy, as logical as a mouse running a maze. He only had his sight on the exit, but he couldn't see the incomprehensible puzzle fogging their path. She'd never seen her sisters look at her like that, with coldness that would freeze fire. It reminded her of her mother in her darkest moments, when she wished she'd never been born.

She told Futaro to sit and she set down her food, then headed to the trash bin and recovered her sisters' discarded lunchboxes. She checked them, they were almost empty. At least they hadn't gone hungry. She set them under the table and opened her own. Futaro had abandoned his food in pursuit of Yotsuba, and the kind cafeteria lady, or a vulture of a student, left a clean table on their return. Futaro grumbled about two-hundred yen flushed down the toilet without the benefit of passing through him on the way. Nino told him not to talk like that before shoving chopsticks sticky with natto into his mouth. Potty humor, of all things, of all the times. She thought she was dating a grown-up. She'd make sure he put his mouth to better use.

Sharing a bento with her boyfriend, it was one of her girlish dreams. One she'd already lived, albeit in an unexpected setting. It should feel more natural here, she thought. They could share each other in the open, no more hiding behind walls or under the stars, he was hers to enjoy day or night, rain or shine. And she was happy to show him off to everyone, to set the boundary against everyone else who might have had eyes on him, goodness knows they were already more numerous than she expected. But the joy of flaunting her status was diminished by the phantom of her sisters' resentment cloaking her like a specter's shroud, muffling the fires of her passion with incessant worry about their reunion. She tried to tear it off and enjoy the moment for what it was, a triumph, but it was as sticky as the natto she gnashed between her teeth. She mournfully remembered their first shared lunch on the rooftop in the rain, under a tiny umbrella, and wondered how much she'd give to be back there out of sight.

"Hey, ah, room for one more?" Yotsuba looked at them nervously holding her lunchbox in front of her like a shy adolescent on her first day of primary school. Futaro, still chewing a mouthful Nino would've forced down his throat if he hadn't opened his mouth willingly, motioned for her to sit. And Nino felt horrible, she'd been so covered with wounds that she'd nearly forgotten the one person at their backs pushing them forward since the very beginning. How quickly the kind were forgotten in crusade.

Yotsuba took a seat across from them and eyed the lunchboxes, shifting to their expressions as she fit the pieces together. Yotsuba was many things, manic, scatterbrained, academically challenged and overly eager to please, and she'd be the first to admit to it all like an innocent child who forgot they stuffed a candy bar in their pocket and forgot to pay. But she wasn't dumb, or thick. None of them were, despite what any simpleton might unreasonably conclude after glancing at their test scores.

She smiled gingerly, "Didn't go well, huh?"

"Nope," Nino said.

Futaro shrugged, "We knew it would be bad, but I don't think it's anything we can't sit down and talk over."

Yotsuba said, "I don't think it'll be that simple."

"Of course it is, what else are we going to do?"

Nino was glad Yotsuba shared her discomfort. It's hard to keep things private with family you've shared a life with from womb to present. They've seen each other at their greatest, and at their very worst. This was not the angriest they'd seen their sisters, but it was the first time such acrimony was directed from one sister to another, and both of them had felt it on blast. Futaro couldn't know, and he'd never learn it in the library. You had to live that unceasing connection to comprehend the pain of watching the person on the other end hack it with an ax.

Yotsuba said, "I wonder..."

"Wonder what?" he asked.

She shook it off, "Oh, nothing. I hope you're right."

"I've had the great misfortune of being your tutor for more than half a year, and-"

"Misfortune?"

"-if there's one thing you taught me, it's that nothing keeps the five of you apart for long. I know, I tried. That was one of my earlier tactics, divide and conquer, and it didn't work. Nothing ever worked unless I managed to bring the five of you together and make you work through the problems as a group. You're like a rubber band ball, always snapping back together. You'll do it again, wait and see."

It was funny, but the way Futaro stated it, so matter-of-factly as if it were just another statistic he slung at them for a test, she almost believed it. And then Ichika's head appeared in the front of her mind, smiled, and shook her head, no, and disappeared.

Futaro pulled out a ring of flashcards from his pocket. Nino said, "Didn't you lose those?"

"I made new ones last night."

"I should've seen that coming."

"I did," Yotsuba said proudly.

"Ready for a pop quiz?"

They blanked, "Now?"

"No better time."

Nino said, "No, there better be. I don't want to."

Futaro looked ready to press, but he might have caught a glimpse of the uneasiness swelling in her chest with every beat her sisters' anger continued, even out of sight. He pocketed the flashcards and said, "On second thought, we'll save it for study hall. It'll be better with the five of you together anyways. Can't be playing favorites now, I have some integrity after all."

His admission let them finish their lunches in relative peace, or in what can exist knowing confrontation is around the next corner. They polished off the remains and journeyed to the classroom. Halfway there Nino asked Futaro to go on ahead. He shrugged, probably assuming she wanted to avoid agitating her sisters further by arriving together, and left her with Yotsuba.

Futaro's hair, a product of an overzealous sister's affectionate contribution to budget cuts, was naturally round and willfully obedient to the laws of gravity. Nevertheless a few rebellious sprigs bounced merrily with his steps like wings of a little bird learning to fly. They were a tease at the spark of life Nino found inside his frozen heart, the only outward hint. Futaro's walk was robotic as if controlled by Swiss gears in unparalleled precision. Everything he did was perfectly coordinated as if running on machine code. And that made him stand out in a sea of lackadaisical peers with little more on their minds than what was waiting at home for dinner, or whether the look that girl with the Hello Kitty scrunchie had given him was inviting a brief hello. Futaro was a twig of a man compared to the sea of XY chromosomes swarming the halls, and most of them were twigs themselves in her eyes, but he carried himself like a freight train steaming along its tracks to some faraway station. Such binary confidence made him appear broader than he was, and his every step was sure of its place.

So it didn't matter that he might face her sisters alone in the classroom, or if it did he was as ready for it as the next exam. That will, sharpened and tested under incandescent light late into the night, filled him until he was greater than his scrawny shoulders would suggest. Nino loved his walk, and she loved how deftly he moved ahead.

Yotsuba leaned into her periphery, "You, wanted something?"

Huh? Oh no, was she staring? A retreating back was only interesting to puppies or assassins, and she had no interest in being either. She blinked and said, "Yeah, what was it? I just had it. Darnit." She squeezed the bridge of her nose like a pimple she wanted to pop, "Listen, about earlier. You shouldn't have done that."

"Part of me thought that, too, but you just looked..." Yotsuba paused, "Ah, it doesn't matter. You're right. I jumped the gun on it."

Jumping the gun? That was putting it mildly. Not that it shouldn't be expected, Yotsuba was the girl who'd run a race before the crowd even assembled. Always working to get things done, but never noticing things falling through the cracks in the pavement. Of course, Nino hadn't done much to help. Even after the gun sounded and she should have made her move, when she should have seized the moment, she froze. She was taken by fear that ran deeper than she'd known, holding her like roots deep in the earth.

She said, "Well, I could've done better too."

"Don't be hard on yourself. I get it, and...well, I get it."

Apologies were a second language to Nino, one she struggled to speak fluently. Admitting fault was like swallowing a bitter prescription, a task made even more difficult when the patient was convinced she wasn't sick. Why suffer indignity when it isn't necessary? Everything she'd done had seemed proper at the time, and she'd done what she could to make it right. What more could anyone expect, unless they were asking for something unreasonable, as if the victim of a fender-bender was roaring demands for a brand new Bentley as compensation. Because that's what it felt like any time someone insisted she apologize for some perceived fault. Why should she? What good did it do anyone? Who were they to judge her place? She was certain of her every action in the moment, that's what mattered. Even if she thought she made a mistake, she brushed it aside and vowed to do better next time. Anything else was admitting that she was wrong, that she'd made things worse. That she didn't belong.

So her bare admittance that she could've done things differently was plenty, especially for Yotsuba. The woman's empathy flowed like a river after a long winter. Whenever parties lined up to take a side, she'd always find herself in the middle sending her love in every direction. It came freely and without string attached, as reliable as the floor supporting your feet.

The pair followed Futaro to the classroom, finding the young man peering through the open door. He pointed inside and shook his head before entering, the pair following to find their sisters' desks empty, and Nino realized they must be waiting to return at the last possible moment. They were cutting it close themselves with only minutes to spare, how late were they planning to push this? She imagined them crowding in the girl's room prepping themselves to face the couple with staged indifference. She wondered if any of them had cried. She thought Miku might, but then again she didn't appear emotional after discovering their secret, but instead almost seemed to shut off from the world, shrinking down into herself like the Wicked Witch of the West. And who knows what Ichika was thinking behind that mask, she refused to let anyone see what was running through her mind. And Itsuki, she didn't know where to begin with Itsuki. She thought she wasn't interested in Futaro, so why was she overreacting like this?

The clock hands met and the door opened and Nino readied herself for their silent accusations like a town prepares for a dam to break. In walked their teacher, setting his materials on his desk, and calling the class to attention. He noticed he left the door ajar and told Futaro to shut it so they could get started with exam prep. Futaro threw Nino a glance, silently telling her not to worry as he did as their teacher instructed. Nino felt the door slide shut from a hiss in her ear, the subtle vibration through her chair, and something deeper closing inside her like a bear trap.

Class commenced as if nothing had happened. No one outside their little circle questioned the three empty seats. Nino kept glancing at the door expecting it to open with a trio of apologies, she even tricked herself into hearing that familiar skidding across the rail. But the door stayed shut like a vault trapping her in ignorance. Halfway through the period she realized the door wasn't opening. She discreetly unlocked her cellphone and fired off a short text to her sisters, but just as she hit send the teacher called her out on breaking a fundamental rule of his class. Their teacher, an older man whose head hair had migrated south of his face, was a traditionalist and despised the rapid advances in technology that gave his students renewed freedom to ignore his lessons. He stared across the generation bridge and sneered at what he saw. He demanded she give him her phone and she wouldn't see it again until the end of the day. She reluctantly complied, quickly checking if her sisters had sent a quick response. Nothing. She sighed and handed it over. Her teacher nodded, certain that his student would return her attention to his lecture on covalent bonds. He was mistaken, her focus was dragged to those three empty desks like light into the well of a black hole.

At period's end, Futaro and Yotsuba gathered at her desk. Yotsuba's normally infectious cheer was wasted on her, especially when she mentioned she hadn't been able to reach them either. Not that she'd really tried beyond a single text. She said she didn't think she needed to call them, whatever they were doing must be keeping them busy. Nino suspected the real reason Yotsuba hadn't tried harder is she worried about their response to her, and if it might be as biting as before. They were the ones who owed Yotsuba an apology, she thought. And Futaro just shrugged and carried on, self-assured that things would work out. There had to be a logical reason they weren't here, he said. That infallible logic put him at ease. Nino almost groaned over how he always put everything into place, but her worry dulled her fangs and she even latched onto Futaro's thinking, hoping that, like always, he knew something the rest of them didn't.

Two more hours. One hundred and twenty minutes. Three thousand, six hundred seconds. These digits floated like papers in the ocean of her mind. So small she could crumble them in her hands. Yet they leaked between her fingers in a ceaseless, drawn out tick, tick, tick. Three thousand, six hundred torturous ticks of the clock before the bell released her to hunt for her sisters. Those two hours were the least productive of her academic career, a personal accomplishment she was too fretful to appreciate. And when it finally came, with Nino ready to leap from her seat like an eruption in the Pacific, their teacher demanded a few extra minutes of precious time and detailed off-the-book study strategies he guaranteed would help them at test time. Futaro scribbled them down to reference later and Nino wished he'd show at least a fraction of her concern.

At last they were dismissed. The teacher handed an impatient Nino her phone with deliberate sloth as Nino glared a thousand needles into him. She unlocked it and saw five texts. She lit up with hope, but they were from friends. Nothing from her sisters.

She joined Yotsuba at Futaro's desk, shaking her head. Futaro said, "Let's head to study hall, I'm sure we'll see them there."

Nino said, "Why think that?"

"Miku's never missed tutoring. Not once. She'll be there. I think the others will be as well."

Nino said, "Oh, you think this won't change anything? There's no way they'll show up if they skipped class."

Yotsuba said, "It can't hurt to try, it's just down the hall."

Outnumbered, she reluctantly followed Futaro to test his theory. When they found their usual seat empty, with no sign of her family, she was actually happy. Who was he thinking he knew her sisters better than she did?

Futaro covered his mouth, his eyes checking the seats as if checking for an illusion. "This is, unexpected."

Yotsuba tried, "Maybe they're just not here yet. Or they went to the bathroom all at the same time. Oh! Or they stopped at the convenience to get some snacks!"

Nino said, "Face it, they're not here. They left a long time ago."

Futaro said, "You may be right." Nino scowled, was it so hard to admit he'd been wrong? "But they have to be somewhere, they didn't just disappear into the wind."

"Sure feels like it," Yotsuba said and checked her phone.

Nino said, "Stop wasting time, they're not picking up. We need to go find them."

Futaro asked, "And where might they be?"

"Home? Or the cafe four blocks down the street? You know, Yotsuba, the one where we tried coffee with chili peppers and needed double lattes to fight the spice? Or the Department stone past that, or the botanical gardens at that spot by the river-"

"I don't know any of those places."

"Miku and Ichika invited you before, you just ignored them."

"Oh. Was that part of-"

"Yes. How could you never tell?" Futaro grumbled and didn't respond.

Yotsuba hummed, "That's a lot of places. We should split up, we'll find them faster that way."

Nino said, "Not a bad idea, text if you find them. I'll check the house first."

Yotsuba nodded and turned to Futaro, who mulled on it a moment before saying, "I'll stay here, in case they show up."

Nino fumed, "They aren't coming here, idiot!"

"They might," he said hopefully.

Nino rolled her eyes as Yotsuba said, "Okay, and I'll check everywhere else!"

Nino asked, "Everywhere? As in every place we go to?"

"Yup!"

She shrugged, it's just Yotsuba. "Alright, good luck. Remember, text us if you see them before you try talking with them." She left as Futaro sat at their table. He looked straight ahead for a moment and pondered the nothing on the wall before opening his tutoring materials without a student in sight.

Nino walked briskly home as Yotsuba sprinted in the opposite direction. Just as she vanished from sight, Nino regretted going by herself. If they were at home, if she had to face her sisters alone, what would she say? What would she do with three sets of accusing eyes on her? Would she freeze up like before, lock up like a broken machine destined for the junkyard? The four lunchboxes swayed unsteadily in her grip as she rocked one foot in front of the other, their combined weight putting her more off-balance than she already felt.

Nino lingered outside their shared house, the tiny dwelling she'd worked so hard to make a home, and wondered what she'd find inside. What she found was unlike anything she expected. It wasn't what her sisters said, they weren't there. But they had been, and their lingering presence, or lack of, spoke louder than screams.

No one knew a home better than a homemaker. Nino knew where each and every item under their roof belonged, and she enforced rigid tidiness standards for her sisters. So she knew the moment she stepped through the door that something was wrong. She checked the entryway, if her sisters' shoes were present, they were home. They weren't, and the rest of their shoes were missing, too. Nino stood a moment taking in the open patches of floor that hadn't felt incandescent light since they moved in. The entryway was a lesson in chaos as the five struggled to store their collection of shoes, but now it seemed tidy. Clear. It was wrong.

She stepped inside and noticed that Itsuki's journal was missing from the table. She'd seen it there this morning, she'd wager a week's wages on it. And Ichika's spare charger was missing at the wall, she kept it there to keep her phone charged while they watched movies together, all the while fending off her sisters' requests to share, claiming she needed it in case work called. And then there was the drying rack, she was sure she'd hung Miku's work uniform last night before the concert. And then like a puzzler reaching the bottom of the box, she realized all of the pieces that were missing.

She stormed to the closets and confirmed her fears. Almost barren, cleared out of anything belonging to her sisters sans Yotsuba. Dresses, shorts, swimsuits, underwear, everything. All gone. Those spaces, once filled with purpose, were now empty like holes in in a mothballed shirt. She ran through their closets again the way one does when they can't find their keys and keeps checking the same places over and over, as if her eyes weren't working the first three times and she had to check just once more to be sure, and then again. And every time her sisters' belongings failed to reappear, reality bit that much deeper into her throat. And once it sunk deep enough for her gut to digest it, she sat among the open cabinets and barren closets and marveled at how spacious this room could be all by herself.

She told herself to keep calm. There had to be an explanation for this. She knew it too, but she didn't let herself think of it. She couldn't face being abandoned by her family. And suddenly she was seized by the urge to scream for them as if they were just out of earshot and she had a chance to make them turn back and see her. She gripped her cell and opened her contacts, and paused. Where to begin? Who to call first? Not Miku, not Ichika, the wounds were deepest there. It had to be Itsuki. What did she have to be mad about? She'd make her see sense if they could have a one-on-one chat. She owed her that much. Yeah, of course she did. What did she think she was doing, acting all pissy today as if she'd broken an egg over her head. She must have calmed down by now, and then Ichika and Miku would be easy, they had to be!

She listened to the pulsing ringing abruptly cut in the second blip. She gripped her phone as Itsuki said, "What?"

"Itsuki! I'm so glad I caught you! Why didn't you text me back?"

"We were busy"

"With what? Where is everyone? Why is your stuff gone?"

"Ask your boyfriend, he's good at figuring things out."

Nino shuddered as Itsuki's words rinsed her like a bucket of ice water. "That's stupid, and he has nothing to do with this. I'm sitting in our bedroom right now, everything's gone. What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Itsuki asked, sounding perplexed, "What does it matter what I did? It's what _you_ did that matters. What the hell were you thinking today? How could you let things get this out of hand!?"

"You mean me and Futaro? We were going to tell you! We had everything planned out perfectly! It just got out early that's all! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?"

"Because this is a big deal! What else can it be!?"

Nino's voice rose to match her sister, her pride demanding defense, "You're the one making it a big deal! Is that what this is then? You move all your shit out of the house for, what, a misunderstanding? Where the hell are you!?"

"And Yotsuba?" Nino froze, "Was she meant to take the fall?"

"That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Do you realize how horrible I feel taking this out on her? You threw her right in front of a train to save yourself!"

"I wasn't ready, and I came back and made things right, didn't I?"

Itsuki scoffed, "And that makes everything better? You think that makes up for everything?"

"I made up with Yotsuba, if that's what you're asking. Where do you get off acting the crusader? What'd I ever do to you?"

Silence. Heavy breathing. Then, lowly, "You don't remember?"

"You told me you didn't like him!"

"I don't."

"Then what?"

"You lied to me!" Itsuki screeched, "I asked you, two days ago, because I thought something was up. And I wanted to get ahead of it, before something like this happened! But you said no, nothing was happening. You lied straight to my face and look what happened! Are you really that stupid!?"

Nino had nothing snappy to fire back, she felt like a child, like the little girl she used to be, caught by mother with a candy bar she'd hidden away to avoid sharing. "I, it was sudden, and it just came out."

"You had two days to tell us. Two days. How long would you have kept it a secret if someone hadn't caught you two sucking face? Were you going to wait and surprise us with wedding invitations? Did you laugh when Ichika and Miku tried getting his attention, knowing you already had it all to yourself?"

"It wasn't like that! I was going to, I just-"

"Do you have any idea how Miku is taking this? Do you even care?"

"Of course I do! What's happening with Miku?"

Itsuki wasn't listening, she was an over-inflated balloon gushing pressure, "And Yotsuba! I just can't-" she groaned like a buoy caught between a yacht and the pier, "You've done a lot of selfish shit, Nino. But never anything like this. This is one hell of a low."

"You make it sound like I wanted to hurt everyone! I didn't! I swear! We had everything planned, if we only had a chance-"

Itsuki cut her off curtly, "Yeah. If only. You're like a broken record. I'm hanging up," The line died. Nino felt struck, staring at her obedient phone as it patiently awaited her next tactile command. She almost dialed Itsuki back for another shouting match, but hesitated, wondering if her constitution was ready for it. She was already shaken like a palm in a hurricane and she wasn't ready for another Category Five. But for all their arguing, she didn't have an answer as to where they were. She decided to call again. Miku was closest on her contact list, but before calling she remembered what Itsuki said and wondered just what state Miku was in. Would she even pick up? She thought it better to try Ichika first, despite knowing there was definitely bad blood between them.

The phone wasn't even through its first ring when Ichika picked up and Nino wondered if Ichika had expected her, or if she'd been right beside Itsuki through their entire squabble.

"Nino! Hi, I was hoping you'd call." After Itsuki's discontent, Ichika's chipperness was like stepping out of the frozen cold into a hot tub.

"Ichika! Where is everyone? I'm at home, and-"

"Yeah, about that. You might have noticed-"

"That everything's gone?"

"Not everything, just my stuff. And Miku's, and Itsuki's."

"Yeah, I noticed. So why?"

"Oh! I forgot to tell you? Silly, I must've gotten carried away with all the unpacking. We're living with dad again, I thought it'd be best if we gave the happy couple some space. We figured you'd want to keep Yotsuba around, since she's been in on your little affair for some time now. She's welcome to join us if she likes, though. Could you be a dear and pass it along for me?"

Nino's heart skipped a beat, and nearly choked, "You're back with dad? But, we promised we were going to try and do things our way! Together!"

"Looks like we did, didn't we? Or maybe it was just you," She mused, then continued, "Anyway, I've already withdrawn our parts of the money from the account. Don't worry, we left yours and Yotsuba's, I'm sure the two of you can cover expenses just fine on your own. Hold on, I'm forgetting something..."

"Ichika, listen, I get that you're pissed, but I can explain-"

"Oh well, can't be important. Anyways, I best be off. Still plenty left to unpack. I forgot how spacious our rooms are. Do you mind if I store some of my new clothes in your old room? Oh, I'm sure you won't mind. Anyways, bye!"

The line went dead. Nino's hopes quickly followed. Ichika's parting words were worse, more painful than Itsuki's, because they were so fake. A gift of poison wrapped in delightfully colorful paper. A poison apple. Ichika never behaved that way towards her, and so Nino felt the depths of her loathing.

She looked at her phone again and honed in on the final untested number. What would she think when she called? Was Miku nestled next to the others, laughing at her pleas? No, not Miku. She would be alone, locked in her room like an insect in its cocoon. A part of her didn't want to try, because she knew of all her sisters, she'd had the least chance at success with her. But, with all other options reduced to zero, Miku had ascended to become her last hope. With a tepid touch she initiated the call and waited. As it rang she imagined Miku eyeing her phone like a frog hopping out from the garbage. And then it stopped. Nino expected to hear a voice message, the pre-programmed kind that Miku could never be bothered to personalize. It didn't come. She checked her phone and saw it counting the seconds. Miku picked up, silently.

"Miku?" She waited. Nothing. She continued, "Are you there?" She didn't respond. Nino realized this was her game, waiting for her sister to say whatever there was to be said, and be done with it. And Nino realized this was her final chance to win someone over, to make them see her side and bridge this sudden gap. She was desperate to make that connection, it mattered more than anything.

"Just listen, okay. Listen to what I have to say. I, I might have screwed up. No, I didn't mean for things to go this way. You have to believe me, we were going to tell you. I didn't mean to make Futaro and me a secret, I just, had to wait for the right moment. I knew you liked him and I knew Ichika liked him and I wanted us to go on like before, and I thought that breaking the news the right way would let that happen. But it got out and now you know. I...I'm sorry, Miku. I'm so, so sorry if I hurt you. Please, just say something. Say we can go back to normal. Please."

She waited for her answer, hear heart in her throat. But none came. She asked, "Miku?" Nothing. She checked her phone and saw her call log. Miku had hung up ten seconds into the call. She screen shone radiantly with innocent light waiting for her next call. When no command came, it darkened quietly, thinking its work done.

Weakness was a word rarely used to describe Nino, not even by those who knew her from a glance. But as with Achilles and his infamous heel, Nino had a spot as soft and fragile as rice paper, and when it was punctured, she deflated of all her opulence like a statue crumbling from neglect. It was concealed behind iron gates no one outside could hope to penetrate. But it was always there, open to wounding by those already inside. That small pool, those who had been there since the beginning, were supposed to be her; five sisters, one family. One. And in that emptied room, Nino realized that precious unity was lost, and her sisters were setting those old bridges aflame.

All because she tried to bring someone else in. Because she'd thought that they would value their relationships above everything, like she did. Because she thought that some stupid boy could never get between her and her family, and that they would accept him with her as she certainly would have done for them. But they were too different. How had they become so different? Nino wept as she remembered when they were one, the same girl the gods loved so much they made her again, and again, and again, and again.

She escaped the lonely room to the toilet. Inside she saw herself, a mess from tears and scarred makeup. She took off her ribbons, earrings and contacts and cleaned her face of makeup. She looked back at her face and wondered if this was Miku's face, or Ichika's when she was alone and could drop the act. She wondered how her sisters were feeling, Itsuki was the only one who genuinely expressed anything to her. Ichika and Miku, they were hiding in their own ways. And it hurt, knowing it was from her.

She remembered the first time she saw her mother look at her with ire. They'd just turned seven and Nino had spilled juice onto the carpet. Her mother hadn't screamed, just sighed and started cleaning. And as she bent down, she looked at Nino, and for the first time she showed a hint at regret behind those tired, porcelain eyes that hadn't seen nearly enough years to look so weathered. Her mother blinked and it was gone, but it never left Nino. She hadn't known what it meant then, but knew it was only for her, the smallest slip in a mother's love. Was this the first time she wondered how much simpler her life would be if Nino hadn't followed? Or just the first time Nino noticed? Either way, nothing had been quite the same ever since, that unspoken truth bubbling underneath her feet.

And now it would be the same with her sisters. Her love for them was infinite, she would love them forever no matter what they did. But it only went one way. Her sisters felt no such unconditional love for her. They had their limits, and she'd crossed them in a blink. And now they hid their regret, their anger from her. Just like mother. How long until Yotsuba turned away? How long until she was all alone?

The doorbell chimed. She was set on staying put in the bathroom and letting someone else get it, then felt a fool as she remembered there was no one else. She opened the door. The boy at the center of all this stood unabashedly. He glared, "There you are."

A thought crossed her mind, a revelation. None of this would have happened if not for him. If he'd just kept away. If he'd never gotten involved with their lives, they'd still be here. And she wondered if it was a mistake to let someone else in. She was a fool for thinking she could have it all her way.

"What're you doing here?" she glowered.

"Looking for you. What else? Are they here?"

"Go away, we don't want you here right now," she said.

"What's with you, Nino?"

She didn't want to be Nino, now, she wanted to be one of the quintuplets. She wanted to go back. She didn't want him here right now. So she lied, "Wrong girl, idiot."

Futaro blinked, "Stop joking, Nino. What is it?"

"I said I'm not Nino!"

"Yes you are."

"How would you even know?"

"I know my own girlfriend."

"We're quintuplets!"

Futaro pointed to her face, "Yeah, but I picked up a few hints. Like, you have this thing you do with your lips, ah, a tick, I guess, on the left, I mean my left, right there. It happens when you frown, like that. And you style your eyebrows differently, too. I don't get why girls do that, by the way, but yours taper off at the ends. And then there's," Futaro paused, leering at her and rubbing his face, "Ah, it's hard to describe. But I know it's you. So tell me what's going on, you're acting like a freak."

Nino bit her lip and felt his gaze like a searchlight finding her in the darkness. It found her in all the tiny ways she separated herself from her family. And she remembered that she'd gained something in taking this leap, something she'd thought precious enough to risk their status quo. A different love she hadn't known. One that, she hoped, wouldn't resent her too. She'd taken the step, no going back now. And she didn't want to lose what she'd found.

Futaro asked, "I get it, I messed up. I waited for over half an hour for someone to show up, but it just felt like a waste, so I left and came here. It really thought they'd be there."

Nino nodded, tearing up, "Yeah, me too," she said, and then hugged him, remembering all the reasons she loved him.

Futaro stood stiff, his hands splayed to his side wondering where they should go. "So, we're good?"

"Yeah, sorry about that." She felt his arms test their welcome as he embraced her back.

"It'll be okay," he said.

"I know," she began. Just okay. It was easy to be okay. She wanted to be more than that, with everyone. But right now, it would be enough. "I know."

**A/N**

A late chapter was inevitable, for one reason or another. It arose when I found myself staring at the blinking spacer on my screen and couldn't find the words to fill in the blanks. So I stepped away until it returned. But what I needed to do was sit down and force the words out, even if it was crap, until I found them beginning to flow once more. And when I did, I managed to finish this piece and break the block. So I present what I was able to complete. I don't think it's my best work, or my worst, but it's an achievement nonetheless.

And I had people in reviews confess that as a result of the delays, they expanded more. But surprisingly someone read those reviews and posted anonymously, asking others to understand the author's delay and have patience for my own pace. I think it's easy to view a story's beginning as a promise for the end, to make it worth engaging with. So it can be frustrating when it doesn't appear to be forthcoming. But I'll say this: writing is hard. Rewarding, but hard. And I struggle sometimes to keep pace. I want to write more, and to finish this. But this is first and foremost a hobby, I will not let it become work. I set two week deadlines for myself as a goal and work to meet them, and if I feel I can't, then I'll delay. But I do want to be regular when I can. So thank you, whoever you are, for understanding, and know that it meant a lot to me that you were willing to post that response.

In this chapter, I wanted to capture Nino's inner conflict regarding her personal view of her family and who her family actually is. I never saw them taking this sort of news well, and I think that turmoil deserves its own interpretation. Things seems to have largely settled between them in the canon, and I think that's a mistake, I think that hurt to pride and ego needs to be addressed, which is why I'm worried the story ends shortly after the eventual bride begins dating him. The manga is built almost like a mystery in that sense, one without clues, and I wonder what will happen when that mystery is done. Will the story still be worth following? I'm not sure, I hope so, the characters are certainly strong enough to stand on their own.

These last few chapters have all taken place in the same 24-hour time span, and we aren't through this harrowing day yet. I'll be back soon with another update, this story will continue. Until then, please review, favorite, and get ready for the next one.

Chapter published September 5th, 2019.


	17. Homecoming

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****7**

**Homecoming**

**~Miku~**

Love is fast, and slow. It is fleeting, and eternal. It is numbing, and overwhelming. It is everything at once, a concept so fundamental to the human experience that any try to capture it in language is simultaneously wrong and right. And so love is universally impossible to describe. It can only be peered at at an angle, as if one looks out the window and thinks it is all that there is to see. Love its born in an instant, or over a life, or somewhere in between; it lives and breathes its own experience shared between people in a lonely world.

Like all love, Miku's was the same as any other in being wholly unique. It was born in a flash, a seed planted in fertile soil she watered daily with hope. It was planted from something so innocuous she was certain she was the only one who remembered it. It was only a cooking contest, after all. She couldn't remember why she'd agreed to it in the first place. Maybe it was a burst of pride, something only embarrassing with hindsight. Who was she, a girl who couldn't fry an egg without burning it, to challenge anyone, let alone her? It wasn't even a challenge. Or she shouldn't have. If the judge were anyone else, it would have been no contest.

After all, this was Nino. Her talented, outspoken, sociable older sister. Cooking wasn't even her only talent, it was a footnote in a resume that fought for room on the page. The girl could step into a room and belong as naturally as colors blending in sunset. Even her weaknesses, her grades, never held her back. She was never ashamed, but embraced everything about who she was. She owned herself in a way Miku never would. How had five wildly different quintuplets emerge from carbon-copy templates? Where did Nino find that indominable drive, and why couldn't Miku find her own? Or maybe they weren't really the same. Maybe talent, social skills, and loveability were divided unequally in the womb and she was left with a sliver of the pie, and as it rose in the oven of childhood, her unequal portion became a glaring omission against her mountainous sisters.

She'd watched Nino develop her budding cooking skills from when they were girls, ever since she dramatically proclaimed she wanted to cook. She'd stand on the tips of her toes like a ballerina to handle pots on the stove. Her early achievements were decisively negative, notably that time she managed to set fire while boiling water. But she didn't give up. She hogged the TV devouring cooking shows in that brief window before dinner prep, then she'd mirror the masters while preparing their evening meal. And when Ichika managed to steal the remote and switch to their soaps, Nino picked up mother's cook book and spent hours devouring recipes like her sisters later devoured her results. And over the years, she improved. After mother passed away, she took over the kitchen, it became her territory, and she ensured they never missed a hot meal without mother.

And Miku wanted to be the same, in her own way. She wanted to excel somewhere, to be a provider for those she loved. There was one thing Miku was objectively better at than her sisters: studies. But who could brag about that when their combined scores barely totaled a hundred? She'd thought she could fill that void in their lives left by their mother, like Nino filled their bellies and Yotsuba carried their spirits. She would help her sisters graduate together, as mother had wanted. And she'd tried, oh how she'd struggled to help them pass. But their scores continued to plummet after mother died, and she couldn't figure out how to stop it. So she stopped, fearing she was doing more harm than good. She couldn't be like her sisters, she didn't have a space of her own. So she faded into the background like the history she still loved.

But then Futaro tried her food, he tested it against Nino, and said, "They're both pretty good."

And suddenly she was out of her sister's shadow. All the effort she put into preparing something meaningful matched Nino's, if only for one person, and it meant the world to her. That was the seed, and in the months that followed it grew into a hopeful sprig bathing in warm sunlight. She wondered what it might have become, if that larger, grander tree wasn't growing beside her, cutting off her light.

She shouldn't be surprised, she realized. Who wouldn't want Nino, after all? She was girly, fashionable, clever, a good cook, and loving enough when she chose to be. What more could a guy want? The boys at their previous school had made that clear enough. How many love letters had Nino received? At least two that she knew of. The first one everyone knew about, she practically shouted him into the floor with her rejection. The second had been far less dramatic. She'd seen Nino take the letter from her locker, check the front, and tear it to pieces like it were nothing, like swatting an irritating fly. Miku bet there were more she didn't see. None for Miku, though. Really, why would there be? Outside of her looks, a blessing she shared with her sisters, a hand-me-down from their mother, what was entirely hers to offer? Who would be interested in her next to her glorious older sister?

Except, she thought Futaro might be. Hadn't he come to her first, before all the rest? And she imagined that maybe he, as the smartest guy in the room, found something in her that no one else, not even Miku, could see. She suspected, then she hoped, then she waited. Waited for what? She wasn't sure, a sign maybe? Something to confirm that this wasn't just wishful thinking. She found many, be it a look, a gesture, a compliment on her work; these were the spigot that fed her seed of affection and made it grow tall. But she always made up excuses, and waited, thinking she would wait for the right one, a sign so indisputable that it had to be his love. So she waited, and she watched, and as she did she found more to admire in him: his determination to see a job done, his snarky humor that made her laugh, his generosity towards his students, his family, and of course his fierce intelligence, sharper than the tip of a spear. She loved how he could outmatch her in almost any subject, even history. His passion was enormous! And he was willing to share it with her, because he...well, maybe, just maybe, he liked her, the way she liked him.

And then he kissed Nino. She hadn't seen that coming. But she should have. He was just a guy, after all, and guys preferred girls like Nino, not Miku. He wasn't that different after all. Or, he was, all in ways she though she wanted. Except one. But that was on her, wasn't it? She couldn't blame him when she had nothing to offer.

She sat on her bed as her phone buzzed like a bee waiting to sting her. She stared at the picture captured on her screen. She remembered taking it months ago, in the middle of their school trip. They'd been riding the ski lift to the top of the bunny hill, he'd pulled his glove off to text his sister. He'd been on his phone incessantly most of the trip, as if sharing a book's worth of detail would let his sister live the trip too. Then she wanted a picture of him in all his gear, except Futaro couldn't send pictures on his phone plan. So she offered, let me take the picture and I'll send it to her. When they got off she framed him against the backdrop of mountains halfway hiding in clouds. She lined up her shot, and frowned as deeply as he did. She spent half a minute coaxing a smile out of him, why was flipping a frown such a herculian task with him? But it was worth it. She kept it all this time, the moment he smiled all for her.

Or at least, that's how she wanted to remember it. Now that picture mocked her, reminding her that he hadn't smiled for her, but for his sister. Was that all this was? Wishful thinking? A story she told herself? How much of this was make-believe?

"Miku?" Ichika called as she let herself into Miku's room. She was wearing a tank top and shorts, her skin glistening like a glossy photo under the light from sweat. They could have hired movers, dad did offer, but Ichika insisted they do this themselves. It would be too easy that way, she said. She wanted to feel the detachment like chopsticks snapping apart.

She glanced at the ringing phone, picked it up and frowned at the picture. "That's annoying," she began as she pressed the red button, then paused, "Okay, wow. I just blocked him after the second try."

She shrugged, "I ignored it."

"Six times?"

"What does it matter? I didn't want to pick up." That was mostly true. Part of her wanted to pick up, to hear his voice and pretend like today hadn't happened. A different, scorned part of her wanted to shout everything she's kept inside, cutting him down like a weed whacker. But no part of her wanted to touch anything to do with him. So she let it ring, powerless to silence it.

Ichika softened like a wax statue melting in the sun. She silenced the unruly phone, then sat next to Miku on her bed. It was nice having her own space again. But his memory tainted that too. This was the bed he slept on, or tried to. She could almost imagine his face resting against her pillow. His presence lingered, the past tainting her present like a stain she couldn't bleach away. Even her family was torn. Four months ago they'd left these rooms with purpose, a shared goal to practice building a life of their own. Together. How well that turned out. Now her nearest sister was two rooms away.

Ichika smiled and took her hand, her long fingers massaging her own, finding the kinks Miku hadn't known were there. She always had such a soft touch with her sisters, always finding the tension hidden under their skin. "I know how you feel. I liked him too."

"I know."

"It just sucks. Like, I didn't think it would suck this much. It feels like," she reached for her chest and the words to describe the feeling. Miku wasn't surprised when she couldn't find them. It was like someone, a certain someone, poked a hole in their hearts and they deflated like dying balloons. Or at least, that's what hers felt like. Ichika gave up and said, "Well, you know."

Miku nodded, how powerful was heartbreak that it left Ichika lost for words? She was always the first to comfort her sisters, the designated shoulder to cry on in a moment of need. She bore the responsibility of the eldest, and her mother taught her that meant looking after their well-being. So she was used to listening, and consoling, and mediating the conflicts that arise in a family. But this wound was too personal and too raw to sense any emotions but her own. And Miku, well, that was Ichika's place, not hers. She wasn't any good at it, either. They were waiting on that bed for something, a sign, maybe, to shift focus away from their wounded hearts. But the room was smaller than she remembered and had only room enough for that, and so inevitably it came forth again, as Ichika found her voice.

She said, "I don't think I would have minded as much, if it was you."

Miku said, "Yeah, me too. If it was you, I mean."

She smiled, "But it's not. Just the girl I least expected." Ichika's legs rocked over the bed, hitting the frame almost audibly, and painfully.

Miku said, "I didn't even know she liked him. She was always at his throat. What happened."

She shrugged, leaning back on her hands, "That's Nino, isn't it. She absolutely doesn't want something, until she does, then she has to have it now. And she doesn't care who she has to step on to get it. She's always been an obnoxious child that way."

"You're exaggerating, she wasn't that bad." She paused, then said, "I think they look happy together."

Ichika laughed mockingly, "Oh, you wanna defend her?"

"No, I'm just saying."

"She did everything she could to undermine him, humiliate him, even hurt him. And then she pulls a perfect one-eighty and he falls right into her arms." And then Miku watched Ichika's eyes freeze over in a cold snap and all the warmth left her, "Why does she get what she wants after everything she did? What gives her the right?"

"Futaro wanted her too, she didn't force him," Miku admitted.

"Then he's an idiot after all, they deserve each other."

Ichika used to be selfish. She still was, but she wasn't the little girl that would steal your candy or your friend. It was her mother's death that made her words 'take care of your sisters' truly sink deep like a flag planted in a show of allegiance. She tried to act the good, reliable elder sister, as was her place. And usually she succeeded. But right now, her scorn outweighed her duty, and Miku saw how deeply Ichika's resentment ran like a crevice running through the earth's crust. Miku wanted to respond, to remind Ichika how Nino was more than an incident, and of all the times she'd put her sisters' welfare first. But she couldn't bring herself to defend her. She couldn't even speak about her anymore. She could only remember the kiss, and how happy they looked together.

She stood up and said, "I don't want to talk about them anymore."

Ichika blinked, "Oh, okay. I understand. I just thought...well, it's nothing."

Miku walked over to her computer and powered it on for the first time in months. It hummed to life with a familiar chirp, its case radiating a blue glow near the fans.

"What are you doing?" Ichika asked.

"I thought I'd play something, it's been a while." She used to spend hours at this desk, losing herself into the world of the screen. She saved worlds before, kingdoms and more. It might be fun to try again.

"Oh, that could be fun, I guess." Ichika started, then got up and clapped her hands and said, "How about we go somewhere instead? How about a spa day, just like we used to? It'll be the three of us!"

"I'm good. Ah, no, it has to update."

"Come on, we have our cards back, money's no object. What have you been missing?"

"This," Miku said as the update bar slowly inched forward with a snail's speed. "I don't want to go out right now."

Ichika sighed and went silent, Miku didn't wonder what she was thinking about in those quiet seconds, before she said, "Alright, I'll be in the other room. Just, come by when you're done, okay?"

"Sure." Miku didn't want to go out, she wanted to get lost in a game, a place Futaro and Nino would never hope to bother her. It was a space all her own. If she had a place at all, it was here, one achievement after another.

She plugged her headphones in as Ichika opened the door. She paused as she stepped outside, saying, "Itsuki? What're you doing?"

_**~Futaro~**_

He counted the rings for a sixth time. Laws of probability predicted if she wouldn't pick up the first five, she wouldn't do it now. But even though it was irrational, he tried again, counting the rings one after another, willing Miku to answer. He knew he had eight rings before the generic voicemail, the kind you hear when no one bothers to set one up themselves. He counted all the way to seven, when the line suddenly went dead. He stared at his phone as if it bit him. At last, a human response, and it was rejection. Well, it wasn't the first time today.

He sighed and closed his phone as he leaned over the balcony. He really thought he might have had a chance with Miku. If she'd just picked up, maybe he could've gotten through to her. Itsuki blocked his number without giving him a chance to speak. He'd tried Ichika next, and she actually picked up, but she almost wished she hadn't. The way she spoke to him, it was like she was being polite to a telemarketer. All those months building a partnership, a friendship, were they tossed aside so easily? Were things between them really so bad that they wanted to cut him off like an infected limb? He hadn't thought so. He'd imagined this could all be sorted out over a cup of coffee, or a pile of homework if he had his way. But when he found Nino all alone in an emptied house looking like her world was ending, he realized it might be. Maybe he didn't know these girls as well as he'd thought.

And he realized this wasn't a puzzle he could put back together in a sitting, These pieces were moving like oil and water circling the drain. And he saw how ill-equipped he was to tackle this problem himself. So what could he do? He decided he'd try, at least, thinking if he could speak with them one-on-one, he could make them remember that they were still important to him, and maybe he could still be important to them too. But that failed, just like Nino had thought. So now, he'd stay by her side, and see what he could do from here. What else was there to do?

He spotted her bouncing ribbon peaking over the fence as she ran. He could see why the track team fought so hard to keep her, she was to sports as he was to colleges: a hot prospect. Yotsuba bounded up the stairs with the grace of a stallion and halted in front of Futaro, doubling over to breathe, "I'm here!"

"Yeah, I see that."

"I looked everywhere! Well, not everywhere, obviously, or I'd have found them, and probably the sandals I lost at the beach last year, but anyways, I looked everywhere. I was about to make another round when you texted me. I never thought to check home, though."

"You couldn't even if you wanted to, you threw your card in the river with the others."

"I could go get it-"

"No. Why would you even think that?"

"Just brainstorming."

"Please, no drowning today, with our luck it just might happen."

"Okay, I get it, I get it." Yotsuba looked at the door and asked, "So, how's she doing?"

"Better than you'd think."

"That's not saying much."

"It says something. See for yourself."

"I guess," Yotsuba bit her lip, then said, "Can I ask something first? I kind of wanted to ask before, but it wasn't a good time."

Futaro watched her curiously and said, "Go ahead, shoot."

She asked, "I was thinking about what you said earlier, I mean, after the rain, in the hall, and, well, I just wanna know. You know. Uh, if you meant it. I mean it's okay if you didn't, if you just wanted to help me feel better, I appreciate it. But I just thought it'd be good to know, if that's what you meant."

Oh, that. He blushed at the memory, a moment that was more personally embarrassing than his actual confession to his actual girlfriend. He better keep that train of thought well away from Nino, at least for now. He pinched his nose and tried to plan his response. But Yotsuba was looking at him sideways through her hair, more hopeful than a child staring under the Christmas tree and hoping the big one was for her. He didn't know these sisters as well as he thought. He should take the obvious hint.

"Well, I said it, didn't I? I'm no good at these kinds of things."

Yotsuba chuckled, "Yeah, I'm no good either, really."

He rolled his eyes, feeling his cheeks warming, "You're still the best I've got."

"How sad."

"Hey."

She hid her laugh, "Kidding."

Futaro huffed, then looked inside. "So, you have my back and I've got yours."

"Whatever you need."

"This isn't going to be easy. Not just her, but, everything else. I don't know if you can do it alone."

Her eyes darkened and she said, "We've been through worse. We'll get through this too."

He motioned to the door, "Ready?"

"Let's do it."

He opened the door and heard something bang!

"Get in there!" Nino roared as she brutally shoved her prisoner into its cage. The vacuum squeezed against an ironing board and a shoe rack into the closet, Nino gave a final groan and the closet relented, reluctantly accepting its new occupant with a tight embrace. Nino pushed the handle as she let go, it wiggled unreliably, and shut the closet door. "Ha! I knew it would fit. That thing's been an eyesore since day one, but I could never make space. Ichika brought too many shoes-"

Futaro said, "You matched her pair for pair-"

"And now they're gone, and we have all this room. Look at this!" She spread her arms wide to welcome the renovated room, "Look how big it is! We have so much space!"

Poor Yotsuba. She certainly prepared for her sister's mood, but for somewhere bordering misery and despair. It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one blindsided by Nino's sudden mania.

Yotsuba whispered, "How long has she been like this?"

"She got started half an hour ago."

"She's been busy."

"She was waiting for you."

"What?"

"Yotsuba!" Nino cried, pointing to their kotatsu, "Help us move this."

"Huh? Oh, is that all? Why'd you wait for me to do it?"

Nino pointed to Futaro, "Me? Moving this? Alone with him? That makes as much sense as a car wash for kittens."

"Hey, I'm working on it," Futaro sneered.

Nino joined him on one corner while Yotsuba took the other side. They lifted on her count of three, Futaro's joints screamed like they'd been woken from sound sleep with an airhorn, and they slowly shifted the kotatsu to the center of the room. They'd had to shove it to one side of the room before, to make room for the two drying racks needed to deal with five girls' dirty laundry, their luggage which was never fully unpacked, textbooks, tools, backpacks, and whatever else wouldn't fit in their closets. But now that supply was more than halved, and a home meant for a low-income couple could finally cope with its occupants.

Nino brushed her hands on her skirt, an old one she'd changed into to work, and said, "This looks good, it's finally starting to look like a home. We might even be able to fit a desk in here if we can find one! Or, maybe a dining room table. Do you know how much I've wanted a proper western-style dining table? I want to sit like a civilized human being again!"

Yotsuba followed her sister's fingers and nodded eagerly like a yes-man at a board meeting. Yotsuba absorbed excitement like a sponge soaking a spill, not recognizing it as a mess. She could imagine the mother Yotsuba would be someday, and endless swell of encouragement for her children. Want to learn piano? I'll cheer you on silently at recitals! Oh, it's boring now? No big deal, you'll find something else you like. What? Your grades are slipping? It's alright, I'm sure you'll get them back up eventually! If Yotsuba would be a bottomless pit of support, Futaro was a mountain of expectation, the brutal reality in the light of a pitiless world. Or so he liked to think. And he thought he should bring Nino back to the situation at hand. She'd been distracting herself almost since he walked through the door. After calming down, she declared that if her sisters were really moving out, so be it. She'd finally do everything she'd always wanted to do with this place and make it a proper home. She'd organize the chaos into a nice, homely order of the Nakano branding. Won't they just be jealous! But after seeing her, so broken as that night over a week before, he knew what it was hiding. That disorder was her family, and now it was gone. And when there was nothing left to organize, she'd miss that chaos and be brought low again.

And what could he do about it? How many problems were there that he couldn't solve? Even though he tried, and tried well, it all ended the same. No, that was wrong, it compounded like a snowball rolling down the hill until becoming an avalanche. He tried to identify where the snowball started rolling, thinking back to the day they met, then moving forward to their exams, their Christmas declaration, that confession in the kitchen, and finally he settled on that night over two weeks ago, when Nino backed away, and in doing so drew his curiosity closer. How quickly their lives had spiraled into the present. It felt like a bomb had blown them away and they were picking up the pieces of themselves on opposite sides of the smoking crater, unable to see the other side. How were the others doing? He wanted to know, but they refused to be seen. So he stayed with the ones he cared for the most, his girlfriend and his best friend, and hoped it was enough.

"Oh, Yotsuba, I almost forgot," Nino began.

Yotsuba asked, "Oh? What?"

"Something Ichika said." She looked out on their living room, her day's masterwork, and crossed her arms, "Your room is just like you left it, apparently Father hired a maid to keep it clean while we were gone. They said you can go home too, if you want."

Nino gazed beyond the room placidly. It was a mask hiding her fear that Yotsuba might really say yes. Then she'd have all the space she could want and more.

Yotsuba said, "Huh? Are you going too?"

She shook her head, "Why would I tidy if I were going too? I'm not going back there. Not with them."

"Well then I'm not going either."

"I don't mind if you do. You don't have to do this for me."

Yotsuba blinked, "Okay, well I still don't wanna go."

"Why not? It's much nicer. Even I miss it."

"Well it's not just for you," she glanced at Futaro, "But, I can't leave both of you alone. That'd just be, well, the worst thing I could do."

Nino bowed her head, "Really?"

"Yeah, so, can I stay-whoa!" She nearly tipped over as Nino tackled her, burying her face in her shoulder.

"So stay then," she said, and with her fear broken, Nino let out her relief, "I don't want to be alone."

Yotsuba stood frozen, caught off guard by her sister's sudden spin, then patted her back, "There there, what else would I do?"

Nino didn't answer, the passing possibility thankfully departed. "I'm just glad you're here."

"I wasn't going anywhere."

"You might have to," Futaro broke the mood, "Both of you."

They broke apart and looked at him. Nino asked, "What are you talking about?"

Futaro whirled his finger around the room, "Sorry to be the one to point out the elephant in the room, but it needs to be asked. Can you two afford this place on your own? Don't just think about rent. What about cable, electricity, water and sewage? Or food, even? Are two part-timers able to cover that?"

Nino's face darkened. She'd known, of course she did, but that was low on her list of problems. "We have enough to get by for a while."

"Not long, rent's due this week, remember? And what about food and everything else?"

"Oh, we'll manage, Futaro. We always do," Yotsuba assured him.

"You won't. I've seen your paychecks, it won't be enough." Futaro realized he was speaking in a monotone, more a lecture than a counseling. He tried softening his voice, "Face it, the numbers don't add up. You need to go back home."

Nino said, "This is home now."

"It isn't-"

"No. I can't go back there. Not now." Nino said firmly, glaring at him like she were facing down a train, "If I go back now, they'll never forget it. They abandoned us first, it would be like crawling back."

Yotsuba nodded, "It can't be that bad. I can pick up more shifts, or get a second job. I can-"

Futaro said, "Then you won't have any time for your studies. And if that falls through, what's all this effort been for? We have one year left. One year! If you can manage that, it's worth moving home, even if, well, if it means a bit of shame."

Nino shook her head, "You don't get it, Futaro. Don't pretend that you can."

And Futaro wanted to protest. The numbers spoke for themselves and he didn't want to see the two of them step into debt, or worse, to keep up a fantasy. But he remembered seeing Nino so shaken from the day, from something he thought was easily fixable, and realized Nino was right, there were still things going on between them he didn't understand. Maybe she'd relent with time, but for now, she was adamant. And maybe she had a good reason after all. And she looked at him so defiantly and pleadingly all at once, silently saying they were doing this, and she needed his support. What else could he do? That's what a boyfriend did, right?

"Alright, fine. But we need to sit down and work this out on paper. We'll see if we missed something." Nino nodded, stepping forward and hugging him. Futaro patted her back, maybe this was the best he could do for her.

Yotsuba clapped her hands, "Good idea, you can help us budget! We were never very good at that."

"I know. It's one of my many shames."

And then the doorbell rang and three heads swiveled to the door. Futaro checked the time and saw it was a quarter to five. Who would be here at this hour?

"I'll get it!" Yotsuba announced as she bounded for the door, peeling it open, and solidifying like she was greeting a basilisk.

The youngest sister was gasping for breath. She cradled a heavy duffel over one shoulder and a large roller suitcase in hand. "Water, now," she demanded as she brushed past Yotsuba and dropped her things at the entrance.

Futaro asked, "Oh, it's you. What're you-"

Itsuki pointed, "You, zip it. Not a word." She slid off her shoes and stormed to confront a flustered Nino like an army storming a barred gate. Between them was a compressed gas just waiting for a spark. Nino raised her chin to her sister, silently demanding an explanation for her intrusion after her abandonment.

Itsuki pointed to the table. "You. Sit, now."

_**~Nino~**_

She recalled all the wars Futaro told her about. Local conflicts, regional strife, national struggles and World Wars. He never liked teaching them much, he thought schools put too much energy into conflict that there was hardly room for anything else. But he taught them what they needed to pass, and so wars it was. They always ended at a table with two sides sitting across from each other and coming to terms. What did those old men think, looking across at enemies who had hurt them and the people they loved? Is that how Itsuki felt? She knew she felt something in that neighborhood. Hot words still stung after only an hour. That wound was so fresh it was bleeding.

Itsuki heaved a great sigh. She looked strained like an untended surge barrier ready to give way. Why'd she make the trip anyways? Nino wondered what else there was to say, she seemed pretty final before.

Nino spoke first, unable to bear the silence, "Alright, what the hell are you doing here?"

Itsuki raised a finger and seethed, "No, you wait your turn."

"Oh, my turn? We're taking turns now?"

"If that's what it takes-"

"And who do you think you are to decide that?"

Itsuki flared, "I came all this way-"

"Yeah, after ditching us and blowing up at me like a damn dirty bomb! What the hell-"

"Everything I said was true! All of it! You deserved-"

"Deserved what? You left! You picked up with them and left-"

"Will you shut up and let me talk, or are you just gonna keep screaming!?"

Futaro said, "Calm down, both of you. This isn't-"

Itsuki glared, "You. Don't you even try. This is between me and her."

Futaro said, "No, it's not."

Itsuki glared at him, then huffed and said, "Fine, but I have something to say to her first. Then, you can say whatever you want. But I need this." Futaro glanced at Nino, she nodded and straightened herself, ready for whatever Itsuki had.

A calm settled over them as Itsuki brushed her skirt and wiped the sweat from her forehead. And then, when she had the moment to speak and control of the floor, she hesitated. People with something to say express it depending on how they feel. Rage comes in an instant, a stream of emotion like the breaking of a dam. That was Itsuki over the phone. But as it simmers, you think about it, you play the conversation over and over in your head. Itsuki must have imagined their talk a dozen times on her trek over. And now that she was here, she struggled to capture that confidence, and struggled to form the words that once came so easily when she was alone. Itsuki returned to Nino, her glare like a sun through a magnifying glass, "I meant it. Everything I said. But I need to say something else."

"Well, go ahead. Spit it out."

"This is all your fault. All of it."

"_My_ fault? You three-"

"Did what? You think it's okay we found out on fucking twitter!? And I think, I think we could've dealt with that, except you let Yotsuba take the fall, and you," she pointed to Yotsuba, "You covered for her. I know you thought you were doing the right thing, but it only made things worse." Yotsuba shrank at the accusation, her lip quivering as her eyes fell to the floor.

Futaro said, "Alright, stop. This is going too far. Say what you came to say and be done with it."

"I told you to-"

"All this shouting isn't getting you anywhere. Just say it. Nino, we'll listen."

Nino wanted to protest, she didn't want to be assaulted again and just sit there taking it. But Futaro was firm, and she couldn't bear having him against her too, even in such a small way. She said, "Just get on with it already."

She just had to keep the bite in her language. She crossed her arms and readied herself for Itsuki's ravings, knowing that she herself was still on solid ground. She wasn't the one who abandoned her family. They were. Itsuki, Ichika, even Miku. They left her behind. It was a wound more stinging than a being run under a sewing machine.

Itsuki breathed deeply and said, "I was so angry with you. Both of you, no, all three of you. I couldn't believe you would actually go behind our backs. I imagined you laughing and thinking you were getting away with your little affair, and we were all oblivious. But we weren't, and when we asked, when we gave you a chance to come clean, you lied! You lied to all of us! Mother told us we could never, not to each other. And you just moved on like it was nothing."

Oh now forcefully Nino had to bite her tongue. Futaro saw her ready to snap and glared, its pressure the only thing keeping her mouth shut.

And suddenly some of the fight left Itsuki, maybe all the shouting from today had dulled her edge, or maybe she was tired of being angry. Her tone lost its edge like a knife run against rock. She said, "But you know what the worst thing is? Miku didn't have a clue. She didn't even know you liked him. Did you know that? And then to find out like that-"

Nino couldn't take it, even Futaro couldn't hold her back, "I was going to tell everyone. I really was! It isn't my fault someone couldn't keep their fat nose outta our business."

Itsuki said, "Were you? When. Go on, tell me when."

"Soon, I was going-"

"Not good enough. When? How much longer were you going to pretend like everything was the same? The longer you waited, Ichika and Miku were thinking, they were-" Itsuki fell off, unable to finish the thought with words.

"Everything has just been happening, this all happened over, like, two weeks. I'm still getting used to this, but I knew I'd know when the time was right to tell you."

"The right time was the moment you decided to date. I don't blame Futaro for that, I blame you. Do you know why?" She leaned in, her eyes sparkling with depth, "That day at the coffee shop? Do you remember? You said you'd be perfectly fine if one of them dated Futaro."

Nino sprang, "And I would be-"

"Yeah, I know. But you didn't trust us to do the same for you." Nino could tell this was the point Itsuki was waiting to reach, because her voice flexed and strained as her emotions fought for control, like a war insider her voice box. And Nino felt the same as her accusation hit too close to home. "Maybe you think what you did protected us. But it didn't. Things are worse than ever, because you couldn't trust us."

Wasn't Itsuki always the intuitive one? If Nino's love for her sisters was expressed in acts of caring, and Yotsuba's was in her endless encouragement and belief, Itsuki's was in her understanding. Itsuki never fought against their differences, she accepted their inevitable changes with love that only a mother could match. She knew Nino in some ways Nino wouldn't even admit to herself. So she was in the perfect position to look in and understand the feelings of everyone involved. And by reaching in, she touched something in Nino she didn't want to admit: the fear that she didn't trust her sisters to accept her relationship, and how that fear might have ruined everything. And by touching it, she sparked the nerves in Nino's feelings and forced her to confront it.

She said, "It's not that, I mean it's not that I didn't trust-"

"No, that's exactly what it is. Why else couldn't you just tell us? Why?"

Nino said, "I didn't, I mean I didn't think it would happen."

Itsuki lingered on her sister, then she sighed, saying, "I know."

"I just wanted us all to be together, but I didn't think-I was afraid what they'd say." Nino bowed her head, tears glistening in her eyes. Sadness, heartbreak, and anger mixed with water falling down her face, and she felt herself awash in her shame and frustration and not knowing what to do with it all. So she directed it at the person across the table, the person she blamed for bringing all this up. She said, "Fine. I messed up. Is that what you came to hear? That this was all my fault? Well congratu-friggin-lations! Mission accomplished! Anything else you wanna shove in my face on your way out the door?"

Itsuki was blown away by Nino's outburst like a bird caught off guard, thinking the strife had passed. "No, I didn't-"

"Well go on, spit it out! It's not like there's much more you can do, so go ahead! And when you leave, tell them-!"

"She's not leaving," Futaro interrupted, placing a hand on Nino's shoulder.

Nino snapped, "Don't be stupid, she-"

"Brought that," Futaro said, pointing at Itsuki's suitcase. "It's not rocket science."

Nino glazed over the suitcase, a red-ribbed name brand she bought for their trip to the mountains last year. "What'd you bring? More of our stuff?"

Itsuki kept her voice level, "No, it's mine."

"Why?"

Itsuki flushed and looked away, "Because, maybe, I was a bit rash."

"Oh, you think?"

"Nino," Futaro warned. She huffed and glared at Itsuki.

Itsuki wringed her hands like a wet cloth and said, "I still think this is your fault, but maybe I could've been better about this."

"You said-"

"I said, you should have trusted us! That you should have told us! This is a betrayal, don't you get it!?" Itsuki snapped back, but fizzled as quickly as she ignited, "But I...maybe I, no, that's not right. We all could've done it differently. But I was so angry in the lunch room, that when Ichika announced we were going home, I left. It just felt right. But then I was home and, it was strange, but I could feel the emptiness. And I realized we were tearing our family apart. All of us." Itsuki bowed her head into her hands, "I should've fought Ichika, but I couldn't. And Miku, she's barely said a word. I don't even know if she cares what happens. And by then, it was too late. They weren't going back. So I came here, hoping you'd come back."

Nino listened, breathed deeply, and asked, "Did you tell them this before you left?"

"I did."

"And what'd they say?"

Itsuki said slowly, "It wasn't good."

Nino shook her head, "I can't go back. You can. Yotsuba can. But I can't. They won't accept me again."

"But we-"

"I stayed. Yotsuba stayed. They left. You left, too. Nothing's going to change if I go back now. It'll be like grinding flint and steel over gasoline. I kept a secret, but I never abandoned them. So I'll prove that I can live on my own, even if they leave me behind."

Itsuki swallowed, "And what? You'll never go back? Is this how it's going to be?"

She shrugged, "As long as they want it to be. I'm ready to talk whenever they are."

Itsuki sighed, "I had a feeling you'd say that. That's why I brought my things."

"So you're choosing my side?"

"I don't want to choose a side. I just choose not to leave. There's a difference."

"Not in practice."

"And I'm going to get us back together. All of us."

Nino bit her lip, then said, "We will be. This won't last forever."

"It better not," Itsuki said, "And, I realize I could've said this better before. And earlier. I shouldn't have left, or screamed. I'm sorry."

Nino nodded, rocking back and forth, freezing when she saw Futaro glaring at her expectantly. She sighed, "Yeah, okay. And, I'm sorry I lied, and didn't tell you. That was messed up."

"Nobody's perfect." Itsuki gave a small grin.

"Equally flawed," Nino shot back. Then she got up and rounded the table, taking her sister's hand for the first time since their fight and drawing her into a hug. She gripped her tightly as if afraid she might leave again, but Itsuki pulled herself closer, she wasn't going anywhere, and Nino felt more whole. She said, "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"I missed you three," Yotsuba joined in and hugged her.

Nino peered over her shoulder and said, "Futaro, get over here."

"No."

Yotsuba cheered, "Come on!"

"No. Sister moment."

Itsuki said, "You might as well, you're as much a part of this as we are, Futaro."

"Still no-"

"Fuu," Nino glared, "Now."

Futaro groaned and joined them under duress, hugging Nino from behind. And then they were four. Far less than what Nino wanted. But it was growing. Maybe they could be whole again someday.

**A/N**

Another delay. I'm reminded of a saying: one's an accident, two's a coincidence, three's a trend. Provided I can avoid one more repeat, I hope to continue maintaining a reliable schedule of updates. The reason for this delay was more of the same, overwork at the end of the fiscal year, family visits, and such. All were either enjoyed or indulged, and I want to write. But one thing in this chapter directly held me up: Miku. I struggled to capture her thought process in a way I feel fits with her canon self. I believe that she subjectively has less talent showcased than her sisters, and I feel that would lead to a bit of self-consciousness on her part. But she's portrayed as fairly self-assured and confident in herself, so it was a balancing act to make that a reasonable focal point of weakness. I worked on the first third of this chapter longer than I expected, much longer than the latter parts, before I was satisfied with Miku.

The dust from the day is still settling, and everyone is reeling from impact. It's been a challenge to dive into the characters and analyze how they would react to this news, and what implications it has for everyone's relationships. Who supports the couple and who does not, and what those ripples bring out among them, what deep-set insecurities and personality traits reemerge. That was my thinking as I plotted who would side with who, and where that will take everyone. This is not the family at their best. These are wounded prides facing each other in anger.

I miss the early chapters where moods were lighter, where the characters were prone to joke and laugh and hope. It's all gone downhill, and it's less fun to write. But it's a core part of the story and it needs to be written. I imagine all writers reach these points, parts they just want to get through and return to those chapters that spark joy. And this does, at the end, once the work is complete and I can reflect. I'm excited for the next chapter, where I expect to bring a little of that earlier levity back.

I realized I missed this story's six month anniversary. I published chapter 16 on the day six months after it began. That's a long commitment, and there's a lot left to go. And I still want to tell it, so here's to six months, one year, and beyond.

Two weeks. It's a personal goal, not a promise. I hate breaking promises. So this is something I set for myself as a milestone to keep myself coming back. More will come soon, and soon the dust will settle, the families will pick themselves up and move on to an uncertain future. Please continue your support, it's been wonderful having that all this time, and thank you for understanding these past delays. Please review, comment, and check back in two weeks for the next one.

Chapter published: October 3rd, 2019.


	18. The Man On The Receiver

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****8**

**The Man On The Receiver**

**~Nino~**

"Fuu, look at this."

"Hang on, I almost got it-"

"No, look here, now."

"Do you want these soy sauces or not? Why do they have to be on the top shelf?"

"I do, after you look!"

"Fine! Fine, what is it?"

"What is this?"

"A can of beef stock."

"Is it?"

"Yeah, I got it a minute ago."

"Look closer. Read the label."

"It says it right there, can of...chicken stock. It was in the beef stock slot!"

"So you checked the slot, not the can?"

"It was right there! Why can't they stock things appropriately?"

"I'm sure they did, but there's no helping lazy customers putting things back where they don't belong. Use your eyes, Fuu. It's like you haven't gone grocery shopping before."

"Well I don't, not usually at least."

"Seriously? So who does?"

"Most of the time it's my sister, since dad's busy with work."

"Your sister? The sister who does all the cooking and most of the cleaning?"

"Yeah? And?"

"I had no idea your family was so old-fashioned."

"We're not, but thanks for the oversimplification. You'd understand if you met them."

"I call it like I see it, Fuu."

"Yeah yeah, I got it. So back to the soy sauce. Three bottles, right?"

"Right, and make sure you get the ones from the back."

"What's so special about those?"

"They stock the newer ones in the back, they have longer expiration dates."

"Those aren't even accurate-"

"And once you have some actual experience with groceries, maybe I'll listen to your opinion. For now, reach."

Futaro grumbled and reached over the row of yellow plastic caps and plucked the freshly stocked commodity a bottle at a time. Nino glanced down to his feet and noticed how they sat flat against the earth. Futaro didn't even have to try to reach the top shelf. She had to imitate a Russian ballerina just to score anything from the second to the top. And the top shelf was practically another continent separated by a great sea. And here Futaro effortlessly shifted bottles across that natural boundary with hardly a grumble, at least towards the effort itself, he had plenty to mumble about his picky girlfriend. He looked like a thin waterfall raining premium soy sauce from shelf to basket.

Futaro said, "There, that makes three. Are we set?"

Nino nodded, "Just need the meat, then we're finished and ready to cook."

"How do you normally get this stuff when I'm not here?"

"I find someone to help me."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Uh-huh, you gotta say it now."

"Fine, but it sounds silly. This brand of soy sauce is popular, right? It's a, um, a premium brand?"

"Yeah."

"Well, at risk of being re-accused of sexism, I noticed most of the shoppers here are women. Why place something popular so high where over half their customers can't reach it?"

"Because then it wouldn't be top-shelf."

"That's a stupid reason. What does it matter where it's placed as long as it's good and everyone can actually get to it?"

"It gives me an excuse to bring you along."

"Or maybe it's so guys have girls asking for their help."

Nino laughed, "You're right, that is silly."

Futaro shrugged, "I warned you. It's a conspiracy."

Nino nudged him playfully, "Who knew grocery store clerks were such good pickup-artists?"

She noticed Futaro holding back an embarrassed smile, scratching his nose as he dared to continue with this nonsense. He was cute when he lightened up. He continued, "Ah, I think they'd be a lot better-looking if that were true."

"That'd be nice. Shopping around isles of good-looking guys."

Futaro deadpanned, "Maybe I should apply, I'm very good at reaching high places."

Nino took his arm, "No, you're taken."

"So are you."

Nino grinned and dug into his arm as he pushed their cart. He liked this side of him, playful with a hint of jealousy, like he was ready to trap her in his arms if another guy's eyes charted her body. Futaro didn't seem the type, but he'd surprised her time and time again. His heart wasn't a thing of gears and oil, it beat like anyone else's. There were pieces of a prince in that beating heart, too.

They reached the meat section and Nino selected a nicely marbled ribeye and asked the butcher to slice it for shabu-shabu. Futaro asked why they couldn't just cut it themselves, and Nino lamented his lack of cooking knowledge. She promised that he will learn.

With a full cart, they arrived at the checkout, and there she found pain. The clerk scanned item after item before sliding them to the bags. Nino had been here a hundred times, impatiently hoping she'd gotten one of the quick-handed helpers who realized time was a limited commodity. But each time she'd had power on her side, deep in her purse. Even as of last week, she had a sizable tool in her wallet thanks to their combined hard work. Meat was a luxury, but a luxury they could afford. Now their debit card was barely worth the postage it cost the bank to mail them. Nino counted the uncaring beeps, each one a razor across her arm. She panicked as the checker slid the meat over the reader and her total broke five digits. The dress she was wearing was worth more, and was bought at a more luxurious time. Now five digits seemed to stretch out of reach.

The clerk announced her total and Nino hastily paid before she could second-guess herself. Then she asked Futaro to bag the groceries, giving a halfhearted excuse he must have seen straight through, but didn't pursue.

Nino walked out the door into the glittering street light that couldn't decide whether it wanted to stay on. She checked their account balance on her phone and saw what she feared. Their funds were sufficient, barely, but there'd be nothing left for rent, or sewage, or electricity, or anything. Ichika had seen to that. And she remembered her mother pouring over a table of papers, bills almost screaming demands of payment, with her head in her hands and the weight of a world plus five growing girls on her shoulders. And Nino wondered, when would she become her mother?

Their account, all their hard work towards independence, was almost gone. Where else was she going to get some money? Ah, there was one thing: her dress. The dress Ichika bought for her. It was sitting in the bag in her closet with the receipt. If she returned it, all that money would be charged back to their debit card. It would let them float by a little longer. She wanted to reject the thought, the dress had been a flashback to an easier time, a hope of reclaiming what they'd given away on their own terms. But it was a foolish dream, a child's dream. This was the world she wanted, right? Freedom, and the responsibility it came with. Hadn't it been Ichika's success, after all? It wasn't really hers to share. But Ichika had left it behind, one last boost for her sisters to use. It wouldn't be enough, but it'd be a running start.

And suddenly her phone chimed its colorful melody. She saw her phone displaying a familiar number. A number who never called, not if he could help it. It was always through an intermediary, a secretary, or Mister Ebata. He was rarely this direct, and it was never a good thing when he was.

She picked up, "Hello? Papa?"

"Nino. It's good to hear from you."

"You too, papa." She waited for the reason, she knew it was coming fast. Her papa was like a cheetah lying in the bushes unseen, until he had a point, then he dashed to his prey.

"Mister Ebata has just finished helping your sisters return home."

"I know, Itsuki told me when she came back."

"I'm sure she did. I came home to see how you were settling in. I was disappointed when I saw not everyone had returned."

"We said we weren't coming home until we were ready. Some of us were quicker than the rest."

"Is that so."

"It must be," Nino began, "or did they say something different?"

"They told me enough. I have a pretty good idea of what's happened. I hope you were planning on telling me about Uesugi eventually, you know how I worry about you."

Nino wondered how much her father knew, and just how Ichika, because of course it would be Ichika, has explained things. She doubted it was flattering to her character. "Look, papa, whatever Ichika told you, it's, uh, complicated. You might have noticed, but we aren't on good terms anymore. That's why they're there, and I'm not."

"That's why I'm calling. You're to return home immediately and explain everything. I'll send Mister Ebata over to collect your things."

"I just said I'm not ready-"

"Nino, now is a time for family. The point you were trying to make isn't important anymore. It's time for all of us to be under one roof again."

One roof, one family. It didn't sound that bad. And for a moment Nino wondered if things could all go back to normal if she gave in, if she gave up that goal. But was that goal important anymore, if her sisters were no longer together? That was what mother taught them; whatever happens, what's most important is that they faced it together. And she imagined, there was there was no way they could stay mad at each other if they were trapped in the same house a room apart, they'd have to talk and scream and settle things like they used to.

But then Nino wondered, what was the cost of things going back to the way they were? What would she lose that she'd found?

"And what about Futaro?"

"What about him?"

Nino tried to speak, but what demand did she want to make? What was she trying to ask from her father? Permission? She didn't need that. Acceptance? That sounded about right. "Papa, I want you to know I really like him, and I'm not breaking up with him."

"I've already decided that boy will not be allowed anywhere near our home. You will respect that."

"Things have changed, if you'll let me explain-"

"Not now, Nino. I'll listen to whatever you have to say after you come home."

Nino wanted to laugh, why was her father choosing now to intervene in their lives? "Have you talked with Yotsuba, and Itsuki?"

"I have."

"What'd they say?"

"They're being stubborn. But I know you and Uesugi are at the center of this. If you come home, they'll follow."

"Papa, just what did Miku and Ichika tell you?"

"Their sides. It's time I heard yours."

"So you know everything about their end?"

"I know enough."

"Did you know they've loved Futaro for months? Longer than me, even?"

The line was silent for several moments. Love, her father definitely wasn't ready for that word. Not even with them. Nino wished she could see her father's placid face, and she imagined that just this once, she'd find a crack. "As I said, we can talk about this at home."

Nino laughed lowly, "What's the point, papa? You can't even get the full story there."

"That's irrelevant. What matters is that you return home, where you belong. Uesugi has no part in our affairs."

"Oh he does, more than even you, papa."

"Excuse me?"

Nino felt her voice straining as something came rushing from inside her, "Did you know I cleaned your room for you? Before we moved out? I dusted everything twice a week. So I know exactly how often you were home. I got excited when the covers were out of place, or when there was trash in your bin. But usually there wasn't, because you practically live in your office. I know that couch in your office folds out into a bed, I know, papa, and I know that's where you are every night."

"My work is very demanding, you know that."

"Yeah, I get it. You're busy saving lives and leading medical advancements and changing the world. It'd just be nice if we saw you half as much as your assistant-"

"Nino, you're over the line."

Nino breathed and checked her tone, "The point is, what I'm trying to say is, I'm actually glad you called. I'm glad you care enough to bring us back together. But you're going to leave as soon as it's done. But you still don't know what's actually happening with us, and I don't think you really care. You're the one that brought Futaro into our lives, and it's not fair that you're making him leave. He's my boyfriend now, Papa. And he's Yotsuba's best friend and Itsuki's mentor and you can't change that. And if you can't accept that, if you can't accept him, or them, or me, for what we are, then we aren't ready to come home, because you're not ready for us."

She waited for her father's words. Had they hurt him at all? If he cared, like she thought he did, then she cut him deep like an arrow through the arm. But if he didn't, if he was as distant as he seemed, then he'd be unfazed. Was he just a man wanting to gather his collection of daughters in his grand glass showcase so he could get back to important things? She didn't think so, he wasn't so cold.

He said, "I suspected you were acting strangely on our vacation. Now I understand."

She breathed, "I hope so, papa."

"I'm out of time, I need to get back to work."

"Oh. I see." She deflated, feeling more disappointed than she thought was right.

"I'm mailing you new key cards."

"We don't need-"

"I expect you won't be able to keep up with expenses on your own. This is for when you either come to your senses, or face eviction."

"It won't come to that."

"We'll see. I expect you to work this out among yourselves, and to return home shortly. When you do, we'll talk about everything. Uesugi too."

"Papa, we can talk about all of that now. Just come to our place. I sent you the address months ago."

He said, "I'll consider it. Goodnight Nino," he finished as he hung up. She dropped her phone and knew he already had. He'd never step foot in the proof of his daughters' rebellion.

And it infuriated her that her father wouldn't believe they could survive on their own. They'd practically been doing it for five years already, all they had to add were a few streams of income, and he doubted they could manage even that. Well they had, and they'd keep doing it, dammit! And now she felt a burning desire to make it seen, more than ever. Not just to him, but to Ichika and Miku and everyone who dared to doubt her capabilities.

But she had doubt, enough to understand theirs. Futaro had run the numbers, they'd have to give up a lot to keep living in that broken home. So much that Nino questioned their continued independence's worth. But if her sisters were committed, she couldn't let their sacrifice go unappreciated, and she wanted to show her father and her sisters that she could manage things even when they were apart. So she took her phone and made another call.

She expected the wait. She imagined him grudgingly washing his hands of flour and icing to pick up his phone, before answering, "What is it, Nakano?"

"Hello! I hope I'm not interrupting-"

"-You are, be quick."

"Oh! Okay, I can call back-"

"I'm already here, so go."

"Well, I was wondering if you needed any more help."

"What, you got someone who needs work?"

"No, I mean, if you need anyone to pick up some shifts, I can-"

"Wait, you serious!?"

"Whoa, uh, I mean, yeah. So, are there any-"

"Which days?"

"I was thinking Saturday? And maybe next week Tuesday, too."

"Trying to match Uesugi's schedule?"

"Kind of, but that's not the reason."

"I'm not complaining, you want them, they're yours."

"Great! And, one more thing."

"You're spoiling me. Go on."

"Last week you offered overtime if I trained the other bakers. I was wondering if that was still open."

The line was silent for a long moment, and Nino wondered if she'd pushed too far. Then the manager said, "I thought you were too busy."

"I was, but something came up."

"A lot, it sounds like."

"Yeah."

More silence, then, "I can offer you an extra one-fifty and hour if you'll train as needed on shift. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Good, you'll start Thursday. Watch out for Uesugi by the way, he burned the batter last night."

"I'll keep him on a short leash."

"I'm sure you will. Bye."

Nino hung up the line with hope, a slight bump in pay would go a long way. A little closer to getting into the black, a little closer to proving her doubters wrong, a little closer to freedom. Or at least, the loosening of the leash. It was strange, six months ago she'd wanted nothing more than to stay trapped in their little play pen with the gate welded shut. If she had a pair of magic glasses that let her see herself through eyes six months younger, what would she think of herself? She'd see herself as a deadbeat sister throwing a fit, betraying her sisters for a stupid boy. Even now she marveled at what she'd said to her father, how she'd rejected his offer.

But among all of Futaro's lessons in the past half year, there was one thing she learned on her own, and it was that lesson that changed the part of herself that pushed her back to that tiny apartment: her sisters were drifting away. Her family was changing irreversibly. She had to change with them. Even as she'd struggled to keep her family together, she'd tiptoed into those uncharted waters and tasted possibility. Now, she'd dived in head first, all that was left was to swim. And even though she was afraid how different they would become, she hoped that, as she lost sight of them, their paths would bring them back together before they beyond a point of no return.

She rejoined Futaro as he idled outside the shop. He offered her one of the three shopping bags and said, "What was that about?"

"Picking up a shift or two. See you Saturday."

"Huh, I had a feeling you'd try that."

"Since when?"

"Since I wrote your budget and you got this serious look in your eye."

"You'd do the same thing, I'm not used to being destitute like you."

"Clearly. Why are you getting all this again?" Futaro raised one of the bags, she noticed the juicy meat behind the opaque plastic.

"Yotsuba and Itsuki are sticking with us, they deserve some thanks. I'd say that warrants a good meal."

"It's gonna bite into-"

"I can handle it, that's what the shifts are for," she paused, "And the promotion."

"Promotion?"

"Yup! I'm the executive trainer now."

"Did you just throw the word 'executive' in to fluff it up?"

"Not important. Point is, I'm in charge of training, meaning I'm a step up in the kitchen."

"Got it, boss."

"Boss. I like it."

"I knew you would."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

They passed rows of shopettes and food stands. Nino checked inside a mini-mart and had an idea, "Hey Fuu, you got a lunch box?"

"No, why?"

"Go buy one."

"Why should I-"

"Just do it."

"I buy my lunch."

"Not anymore. Go get it."

Futaro grumbled and stepped inside, emerging minutes later with blue lunchbox with a zipper running along the rim that looked like a jaw. "I guess you'll be preparing my lunch now?"

"Why not? You sound ungrateful."

"I like my barbecue-less barbecue combo."

"I can make something better for half that price. Use that money for something else, like date nights, or, something." Yes, because she wouldn't have anything to spend on them, not for a while. Look at her, budgeting like a champ!

As she returned home, Yotsuba announced, "You're back! Finally!"

Itsuki moaned from the table where she was watching a cooking show with a dangerous look in her eyes, like a predator. "Nino, please hurry."

"It's six-thirty."

"I didn't finish lunch!"

"Who's fault is that?"

"Let's not go into today, not yet."

She gave Futaro a taste of her role to come at the cake shop as they prepared the hot pot. Or rather, she tried, but their low-end kitchenette was a far cry from the industrial behemoth that was their workplace. After bumping into each other for the fifth time, she told him to just stand back and hand her things as she demanded them. Then she got tired of explaining what a garlic press looked like and did everything herself. One day she would have a proper kitchen, with an island and a dozen cupboards and brand-name appliances. Hell, working appliances alone would be a boon right about now.

With the ingredients prepared, it was time for the main event. The electric skillet she'd snagged at an estate sale after moving out was slow to heat, like waiting for a stubborn sister to finish moving their stuff from the table so she could vacuum around it. But heat it did, and once the sauce was bubbling and the food was cooking the room was filled with a pungent aroma of flavor so powerful it was painful to wait.

"Eat up!" Nino announced as she loaded their plates. The air was filled with aromic smells and sounds of mastication, filling all five senses with food and flavor. Over dinner, Nino told Yotsuba and Itsuki the details of their relationship, Itsuki all but demanded to be caught up and Nino was happy to share after keeping it to herself for so long.

Yotsuba finished her first plate and said, "This is great, we haven't had hot pot since Christmas."

Itsuki said, "I know. I wish we all of us could enjoy it together."

Nino said, "I'll have another next time, won't that be the perfect way to celebrate?"

"I like the optimism, really I do, but it's time we got back on track," Futaro said.

Itsuki asked, "With what?"

"This," Futaro took out his notebook and set it on the table, "We're overdue for tutoring."

Nino stared at the notebook as if it called her a dirty word, "Are you serious? After all this, we still have to study."

"Of course, what were you expecting?"

"A little reprieve!?"

"Not happening, especially not with you."

"Why am I being singled out?"

"I won't have a dumb girlfriend," He said casually. Yotsuba snorted laughter.

Nino sneered, "You won't have a girlfriend at all if you call her that again."

"That's fine, I have a wide vocabulary."

Itsuki said, "Joking aside, I don't know what you're so surprised about. I was hoping we'd continue."

Nino asked, "What? I thought we were on the same side!"

"We are, the mock exams are just weeks away. I want to see how well I can do. I need to know if I can continue past high school."

Nino asked, "And you, Yotsuba?"

She leaned on her hand and said causally, "I'm fine, too. Futaro, six A.M."

He blinked, "What about it?"

"Morning run time. Six A.M."

Futaro visibly melted like a candle in a time lapse, "Oh, right."

Yotsuba beamed and opened her book, "Alright, let's do this!" Her joy was, while not contagious, certainly a primer and everyone followed suit for an hour lesson. There was one benefit to their family break, they finally had one side of a table to themselves. No more bumping elbows reaching for the mushrooms, no more tabletop so crowded it resembled a jungle. And now at study, they had all the room they could want for their notebooks and study guides. Yotsuba practically expanded, slouching over her notes as if peering into paper pores for answers.

They never could share something evenly five ways. Not walls, not closets, not even shoe racks. But with four, such a reliably accepting number, they all seemed to fit. But Nino missed that crowded space.

After studies Nino washed the dishes as Futaro readied to leave. He asked Nino to see him out, Yotsuba mused why they could possibly want to be alone at this time of night, and Nino couldn't tell if she was being facetious. She cheerily killed Futaro's struggling happiness by shouting "Six A.M!" as they walked out the door.

The night was teasing spring that would drive away the cold, but the cold fought back with a bitter breeze that bit through her jacket. She followed Futaro down the steps and he asked, "Hey, you didn't take a shift for tuesdays, by chance?"

"Not this week, but I will after this."

"So you're free tomorrow."

"For?"

"Dinner."

"Oh definitely! Where are we going? It doesn't have to be anywhere too expensive, I get it, but it'd be nice to go out."

"Right, go out."

"Fuu, what are you getting at?"

"It's not that kind of dinner."

"What kind is it?"

"The kind at my place, where I introduce you to my sister and dad."

Now here was a terror Nino was not prepared for. Her own family was distraction enough, she hadn't even entertained Futaro's household. After all, after studies, work, romance and rejection, who had time to worry about meeting your boyfriend's family? Where had he even had time to set this up!?

"So you just arranged it without even asking me first? I'm nowhere near ready for that!"

"Ready for what? You've already met everyone at least once."

"This is different, like, Mercury and Neptune different! This is so different I don't even have something to compare it to!"

"Positives and negatives-"

"I wasn't being literal!"

"It's just dinner at my house. Simple as that. Besides, it'd be nice to have at least one of our families on our side."

Nino mulled the thought and decided, yes, maybe it would. "Alright, I'll go."

"Good, because I already said you would." Futaro said as he turned left.

Nino grabbed his hand, "Wait, why're you going that way? You always go right, isn't that the way home?"

"Yes, it is, but why do you know that? Have you been watching me leave?"

"That's not important. Tell me where you're going."

Futaro scratched his hair and said, "I was going to tell you, you know. I'm going to see your sisters."

Nino grinned, "I thought so."

"Huh, I thought I'd surprise you."

"You're too predictable, Fuu."

"I wish you'd pay this much attention in class." Futaro said, taking her hand and squeezing it like a heartbeat.

"What're you gonna say?"

"Dunno, I haven't come up with anything good yet. But I figure they're still my students and I'm still their tutor, and since they skipped today's lesson it's my job to scold them."

"I don't think they consider you their tutor anymore."

"Then they can fire me in person, I'll still get to see them. And then, maybe I'll wing it, who knows?"

"Shooting from the hip isn't your strong suit, Fuu."

"Served me fine last night."

Nino pulled his hand closer and rubbed his arm, smiling, "Yeah, it did." She paused, then said, "I'll be okay here. We will."

"I know."

"Call me after?"

"I will."

"I love you."

"I love you too." And then she kissed him, or he kissed her, either way someone was getting kissed and she loved it. For a moment all of today's troubles could melt away like thawing snow in the trees and she could smell the first spring air. Oh, yes!

_**~Futaro~**_

Five is a prime number. It is indivisible, incapable of being less. But six can be destroyed, divided into threes or even twos. You can choose how to destroy it. But you can always put them back together.

This wasn't going to work, he was sure of that. There was nothing he could say that would suddenly make this okay and heal all wounds like rewinding time. No, the damage was done and he lived in the debris. But tonight could still make a difference for their futures. He wondered what exactly was broken, and was it beyond repair? He didn't think so. Their friendships were not so fragile. They were living, born from half a year's long struggle towards academic excellence, through trials of family and self-worth and they came out together stronger. Not just him, Nino, Yotsuba, Itsuki, but everyone, even the two who insisted they no longer belonged. But they were his students. His partners. And they were his friends. The first friends he'd had in years, since he closed off his heart.

And though it was Nino who awoke that well of emotions inside him, each of the quintuplets had stirred it, unsettling it for his eventual eruption, by showing him there was more. There was life to be had outside of the library and classroom and their endless lines of text. There was value in the words of his peers, as much and more as he'd find from the Doctors and philosophers and technocrats he held so highly. Theirs were knowledge of a different order, one he'd discarded as superfluous and irrational. But he was delighted to realize that, yes, they were valuable. They brought a new dimension to life, like stepping from two dimensions into three. And they were his teachers, his guides, all of them. And now it was his turn to put what they taught him into practice.

Futaro was the number six, the outsider, the foreign agent injected into a happy home that unknowingly set it tumbling down like a jenga tower leaning and ready to fall. But after it all came tumbling down, he was the perfect person to build it back up. Where a family was immobilized amid the devastation, he could maneuver through the cracks and web things back together, or at least he could try.

He didn't know how things stood between him and the other sisters. They refused to speak with him since the revelation, casting him out like a dog who knocked over Grandma's ashes while chasing a laser. But he wondered, were they avoiding him from rage, or embarrassment over their feelings? If he spoke to them gently, if he didn't embarrass them for their feelings for him, if he invited them to stay his friend and his students, would they accept? Maybe not right away, but maybe, after tempers had time to settle.

And so Futaro found himself staring down the call box. One button, like a kiss, could set everything in motion. He hoped this would be the catalyst to setting things right.

He waited several moments, wondering if they were looking at him through the monitor. Were they debating whether they should pick up? He called again, and once more until he got an answer.

A voice, a male voice, picked up, "Hello?"

Futaro paused, "Um, hello?"

"This is the Nakano residence, can I help you?"

"Are you, a, servant or something?"

"Kind of, who's this?"

"Futaro Uesugi, here for tu-"

"Uesugi!"

"Yes?"

"It's Takeda!"

"Oh," was how his resolution died. It was as if it stumbled into a sink hole, and upon tumbling down to the depths it lashed out to drag his hope for reconciliation with it.

"Stay right there, we just finished. Don't move, okay? I'm heading down!"

He didn't intend to stay, he just forgot to leave, so great was his shock. He'd been replaced. It took a measly six hours and a kiss to replace him. They'd not only turned their backs on him, they'd packed him in an overnight crate for immediate shipment out of their lives. They didn't even bother firing him in person. He wanted to be angry about it, but the shock was too raw to feel.

He didn't want to face Takeda. He would have left before he arrived, but he was flabbergasted by his dismissal and forgot to move. So he was there when the elevator opened and a young man walked out.

Only, he wasn't a young man. He was a soldier returned from the trenches with a stare ranging a thousand yards. And he wasn't walking, he was running, away from the horrors of the battlefield. He was running to safety, and safety was Futaro.

Takeda grabbed Uesugi by the shoulder and gazed at, through him, unable to forget the horror he'd left behind. "Uesugi..."

"Takeda?"

Takeda begged, "How do you teach these morons!?"

**A/N**

There we go, back on track.

If one kiss can cause an avalanche, what can three, soon to be five kisses cause? I assume we'll find out soon enough with the way the manga's going. I'm glad it's recovered some momentum, it's felt stale since the school trip ended and I've been hoping there's be some character development. Now we have it in easily digestible chunks, but here I get the feeling this might be the last hurrah for blatant romance.

But I wonder, on a slightly related topic, if this manga will stand the test of time once it has ended. A good story is worth reading again even after you know the ending. But the mystery of her identity is so closely tied to the popularity that I wonder what impact it will have. I suppose it's a matter of time to see.

I've wanted to reach this chapter for a while, specifically to answer one question that begged to be answered since I started this story, which began right after chapter 73: what would happen if Takeda actually had to tutor the sisters? The answer: instant, terrific regret. I like the idea of him as a foil for Futaro, but I think his conflict was resolved far too simply and too quickly, so that's an area I want to expand on. He'll play his own part in the story moving forward.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this story, and particularly through these delays. Here's hoping I've gotten over that block and the things holding me back are in the past, at least for a time. Until then, best wishes and I'll get to work on chapter 19. Until then, please review, comment, and continue to enjoy.

Chapter published: October 17th, 2019.


	19. The Replacement

**Burning the Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 1****9**

**The Replacement**

**~Futaro~**

Futaro swirled his iced tea, momentarily mesmerized by the vortex consuming pebbles of ice into its depths like a black hole slowly swallowing the universe. He wondered if this was how the universe would end, swallowed into a single immeasurable mass, crushed into particles too dense for modern science to comprehend. Then he remembered where he was, and he realized his companion was still drolling on, trying to do the same with his attention.

"So then when that didn't work, I moved onto irrational numbers, and oh, that was a mistake. I thought that since they were having this much trouble with numbers that made sense, maybe numbers that didn't make sense would be a better starting point. Like how multiplying negative numbers makes them positive. Makes sense, right? What was I thinking? Ignorance times ignorance equals a society of ignorance. Well after that failed I decided to move on to contemporary history and social studies."

"Social studies? That's Miku's best subject."

"Quit pulling my leg."

"I'm dead serious. She loves it."

"I refuse to believe that."

"Then live in denial, I don't care."

"I wish I could deny today, I really do," Takeda sank into his espresso, a triple shot with a dollop of cream, and drank deeply. "I had to throw out all my prep material after seeing how far behind they were. I kept having to simplify, then simplify again, and it was never good enough! I couldn't make it simple enough! We barely made it through math and social studies, and that was only because I all but forced their heads into their textbooks!"

Was he still going on? It all sounded familiar, Futaro though. Then he realized this had been his stream of conscious all through September. He asked, "Ah, were they giving you any trouble?"

"Have you been listening to a word I said? Trouble is too tame a definition. They were deserts without a puddle of knowledge, forests without any fruit! It was like scaling Mount Everest with a canoe." Takeda fumed. He rapidly tapped the table in an irascible beat, Futaro wondered if it was from frustration or too much caffeine.

"Hmm, I wonder. Did they appear distracted to you?"

"With what, exactly? Is there anything in their heads to be distracted with?"

"Just answer me."

Takeda huffed and said, "Yeah, especially the quiet one."

"Miku?"

"Which one was she?

"Long hair and headphones."

"Her, then. She hardly said a word all day. The other wouldn't shut up, she kept changing the subject. Keeping her on topic was like catching a grasshopper in a pond."

Futaro nodded, trying to picture the scene. It didn't sound like Ichika at all, she as usually so mellow during studies, silently scribing along with her sisters. And Miku, she had always peppered his canned lecture with questions. Was she so distracted because of today? Or had she only been asking those questions to get him to answer? To focus on her? Was that the only reason she'd studied? He didn't want to believe it, because it would mean that all her efforts had a hidden motive, and that she didn't care about bettering herself for her own benefit. But after today he realized how little he really understood these sisters. Especially Miku.

He'd felt their bond was different from the others. There was a connection, a reliance and imbued trust between them that didn't exist with the others. She was the first to throw herself into her studies under him, and she followed his lead like a treasure map promising treasure. She'd come the furthest of them all. He thought she saw him as a role model, an inspiration, and it flattered him to think that someone could see something inside of him that they could strive to achieve. It fulfilled his purpose, to have meaning to others. So he worked diligently to craft lessons that would help her achieve that dream to be better than she was before.

Only, her dream hadn't been solely for academics. There was a hidden motivation, or at least hidden from him. Had romance been the buried driver of her success? Had he only seen the illusion of purpose? And now that it was crushed so finally, if accidentally, would that drive come to a halt? Miku deserved better than that. Ichika, too. He shouldn't be the cause of their failure. He wasn't worth it, he thought.

Takeda continued, "What the hell did you do with them all these months?"

"Teach them, what else?"

"For six months, and this is the best they can do!?"

"They've come a long way, you'd be surprised."

"Maybe you're just a bad tutor. I can't really blame you, it's hard to think on their level when you're at the top."

Takeda spoke as a defeatist, but his off-handed comment was like a jab at Futaro and all his effort. He said, "I did my absolute best with them, all of them, and it shows. They've come a long way from before."

Takeda shrugged, "I believe it, on second thought. After all, if you can't get them passing within standards, what else can be done for these morons?"

"Shut up," he snapped.

Takeda blinked, "Excuse me?"

"Don't call them that."

"But they-"

"You don't know the first thing about them. Any of them. They might struggle, they might be behind, but they are as talented and hardworking as anyone, and if you call them morons again, I'm leaving. I came here because you asked, not so I can hear you bitch about my friends."

Takeda seemed confused. Futaro understood, he felt the same way his first day as their tutor. He'd thought them stupid, idiotic, and every synonym delittling their intellect. But he'd been wrong, their intellectual strength was academically unorthodox, not nonexistent. And they managed to teach him something else, something he was missing, a connection to others. They deserved to be acknowledged for that. Takeda may not understand, so he'd set the record straight now.

Takeda rolled his eyes and said, "Fine, I guess you're close, after all. It isn't productive to think that way, anyways."

"Speaking of unproductive things, am I supposed to keep listening to you complain?"

"No, I need to know what I'm supposed to do with these two! It'd be easier to teach a parrot than these girls, at least the bird can repeat back what I say! How can I teach them when everything goes in one ear, passes through a quad-shredder, and tumbles out the other like sawdust?"

Futaro sipped his tea and said, "Well, first off, always remember that you can go simpler. They need a better foundation in every subject. But you do have one thing going for you."

"What's that?"

"You have the smartest of the five."

Takeda went rigid as a waterfall flash-frozen in a cold snap, his eyes shrinking in fear of something far away. It was the moment hope truly died. "Those two...are the smart ones?"

"That's right, highest test scores of the quintuplets," he paused, "Ah, well if I bomb this mock exam, I guess you'll get to see what I mean once you take my job."

Takeda malfunctioned. He stared into his unfinished caffeine and appeared ready to drown in it. Futaro saw him imagining the possibility of that fuller table, and all the questions and blank stares and endless reminders that yes, it can get worse, he'd have to endure. Futaro knew, he'd lived it for such a long time. But Takeda had wanted his job so badly, let him enjoy all the consequences, he mused.

Then Takeda looked up at him with horror inside of him, saying, "Uesugi, you must not fail!"

"Huh?"

"You need to win this wager with Mr. Nakano, you need to place in the top ten!"

"So you're switching sides?"

Takeda pointed to his espresso, "You see this? This is so I can finish my own homework and studies tonight! I haven't even started!"

"Yeah, been there. What do you think happened to me?"

"If I have to tutor the other three as well, I can't...no, that can't happen. So here's what we'll do: you're still tutoring those three after school, right? Well let's meet afterwards and we'll study for the mock exams together."

"Why would I need your help?"

"Because you're slipping! You need someone to get you back on track, or you won't place in the top ten and then I'll be stuck with all of them!"

"Okay. Or, here's a thought, you just say you don't want to tutor them anymore. Done."

Takeda sharply shook his head, "I can't do that."

"Why not? Just-"

"Uesugi, I cannot do that!" Takeda almost screamed, pointing his finger in fury. Then he caught himself, lamely laughed it off, and said, "I mean, I already gave them my word, I can't back out now. But if you can do it, then it's moot anyways. So do what you do best and we'll all be better for it."

Something was off, even a man with the sensitivity of a door knob like himself could sense that. Takeda's smile was back, radiant as sunshine on a window. It was as Futaro remembered him every day in class, like a glittering bulb illuminating the room that he swiftly ignored. But now he wondered, as natural as it looked, if it was manufactured like industrial plastic.

Futaro said, "Fine, we'll give your idea a shot. And I am going to place in the top ten, but not for you. I'm doing it for them, and for me. And one more thing."

"What's that?"

"You're their tutor now, too. So I expect you to give them all you can. They're relying on you now."

Takeda sighed, "But what's the point? I doubt they'll show any improvement."

"I don't care what you think. They will. I've seen it. I'll even help you, I'll teach you how to teach them."

"Hm, can't hurt. Certainly can't make things worse. Why do you care though? What's in it for you? They ditched you."

"I promised I will see them graduate together. And I don't care if I'm not their official tutor anymore, I'm going to keep it. And since I have you now, I'll do it through you. So I'll show you how to teach them, how they learn, and you'll make sure they succeed. And in exchange, I'll keep you from living the last six months of my life. Deal?"

Takeda looked at him questioningly, seeking out something Futaro kept out of sight, a hidden motive that would make his actions make sense. When he failed, he decided he didn't care and agreed, "Fine, give me what you got and I'll see if I can make it work."

Ninety minutes, two iced teas and four espresso shots later, they left the cafe a little wiser and parted ways with barely a goodbye, only a promise to continue this tomorrow. Futaro pulled out his phone and saw half a dozen missed texts. He called the sender before looking at any of them. The phone barely reached its second ring when she answered.

"Hey babe!" Nino said.

"Babe?"

"I'm trying it out! What do you think?"

"Back to the drawing board."

"Come on, it's cute."

"We've been dating publicly for, let me check, ten hours, and you're already inventing ways to embarrass me?"

"When have you cared what others think? Besides, a girlfriend totally gets to give her boyfriend cute nicknames."

"Babe. Meaning baby."

"Cute."

"Generic."

"And adorable."

"Sounds strange to me."

"Fine, be picky then. I'm just giving you another one."

"I look forward to shooting it down."

"Hold on," Nino paused, then returned, "It was Itsuki. She told you to stop flirting with me and tell us what happened."

"That was flirting?"

"Yeah. Or, I think so."

"Wait, I'm on speaker?"

"No, but," another pause, "you are now."

"Hi Futaro!" Yotsuba's cheer exploded over the line.

"Hey guys," he said.

Itsuki said, "So go on, what happened?"

Futaro checked his watch. He had a fifteen minute walk home. He had time. "Sure, just settle in first. You're not gonna believe this."

_**~Yusuke~**_

What a day. What time was it? Nine? Wonderful! Six hours flushed away without profit. All that time he couldn't bring back to the stables of productivity, and it couldn't have happened at a worse time. The mock exams were weeks, no, days away, and every minute counted. Minutes were bills and seconds were change, all to be spent on betterment. How much irreplaceable currency had he burned at the alter of the inept?

You're still not good enough, he said. Still so far to go, he said. He could hear his words in his head.

So why was he stuck tutoring these imbeciles? What could possibly be worth retreating to a primary level to bring just two of these five academic marvels for all the wrong reasons to the standard of acceptability? He couldn't understand. But Yusuke gave his word, and he wouldn't allow him to give it back. He'd insist, even if Yusuke couldn't understand why this was suddenly so important. But had he known what he was forcing him into? Did he have any idea the stepping stone he'd ordered him to cross was as rugged as the Himalayas? Of course not. He never bothered to check.

But he'd expect results, not excuses. Starting tonight. Takeda took off his shoes and stepped up to the door as he did every night. Ornate oak imported from overseas and installed at immense cost, purely because he could. Takeda rapped on the door and reported, "I'm home."

"Come in."

Takeda opened the door to the study and closed the door softly, mechanically, behind him. Then he waited quietly to be called. His father, a lumbering man in his fifties, was perched over a pile of papers like a hawk swooping the prairie for prey. Time is a razor slashing men down with endless, withering cuts, until they collapsed like a house of cards into old age and wheelchairs rolling towards the best nursing home savings could afford. But some men were made of stone, and until they crumbled they were cut into imposing statues of mortals. His father had weathered those blows and emerged a distinguished figure. And until time toppled him at last, he would remain nothing less.

"Tell me, then."

Takeda's response was rote: slow, mellow, official. "It was only the first day, father."

"And how were they?"

"They're incredibly behind. They should've been held back years ago."

"Good, then it will be even more impressive once you have them graduating above their average peers."

"I don't think that's possible."

"Make it happen."

"But-"

"Make it happen, Yusuke." His father sorted the papers into a courier folder and looked up, a volcano stirring from sleep, "Or, are you saying you're not capable?"

He knew better than to share the truth, "It's not that, just, I can't control-"

"You're a leader, Yusuke. A leader brings those following him to heights they never imagined possible, and rises higher for it. So you will get them within standards, you will have them graduate in the top half of their class, and you will show Doctor Nakano that he should have trusted those five in your care in the first place."

"Five?" Takeda asked.

"Is that a question?"

Takeda realized his mistake immediately, "Ah, Doctor Nakano didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"I'm only tutoring two of his daughters. The other three are still with Uesugi."

"Uesugi," his father mused, his dark eyes like coals catching a flame. There it was, he'd opened Pandora's box."I wish I never learned that name."

"I know, father."

"So why do you keep forcing me to see it? In every report, I look to the top to see your name, and I must always lower my gaze in shame after seeing his. I give you everything you could need. I gave you the best schooling, the best tutors, the best environment to achieve greatness, and you still place second to a nobody."

Takeda reddened with shame as familiar as those perfect scores he achieved so consistently, and still it wasn't enough. Not for him, or his father. Because wasn't he right? He'd been given every opportunity to succeed, every resource his father could provide was given towards his improvement, to be the best that he was meant to be. And still, his name was sandwiched within the masses. Number two, a destined salutatorian, a failure.

His father paced the room, musing, "Or perhaps, yes, this can work in your favor. This could be the chance you've needed. Your students must outperform his while you outperform him on the exam, and then you'll prove that you are the superior academic."

Takeda's shame deepened because he knew he couldn't do it, not alone. How would his father react if he knew Uesugi was planning to help him? Why was he offering to help anyways? What was his angle? Takeda couldn't see what was in it for himself, he doubted Uesugi really cared about their graduation as much as he claimed. Hadn't they abandoned him? Why would he care about them after that? Unless he was trying to get close to Doctor Nakano as well. But why would that matter to him?

"My students are already the two smartest sisters," he said.

"Then make sure they show more improvement, show the Doctor that his students are better off in your care."

Takeda looked at the clock on the wall, a gift to his grandfather from some royal he was sure his father had drilled into his head at some point. Nine-twenty. When was he supposed to find time to study in all this?

"Father, I have a question."

"Go on."

"Do I really need to spend my time helping those girls? Wouldn't my time be better off on myself?"

"No."

"If I spend all my after school hours with them, I'm not going to be ready for the exams."

"You'll make it work."

"But what if I can't."

His father glared, "You will, Yusuki. Just like always."

"Okay, please, just listen. They're really, I spent hours wasting time trying to get them to learn, and if I keep doing that, I won't have time-"

"Then make time, if you have to."

"I don't think I can, do you see-"

It stung. White, tingling pain bursting like a firework consuming the night, until it dimmed into a lingering scar against the black. His cheek flushed again. Takeda gingerly brushed his wounded cheek. He grit his teeth and swallowed his shock, and his response. Like he'd trained himself to.

His father withdrew his hand and whispered, "You are done speaking back to me, is that clear?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Good." His father rubbed his chin and paced away. "You will make it work, Yusuke."

He breathed, "Okay. I will."

"Do you not understand why I'm having you do this?" Yusuke was silent, and his father sighed, "You should have. Doctor Nakano is held in high regard among very powerful circles. I can give you the names of dozens of members of the National Diet, businessmen and influencers who are in his debt thanks to his expertise. They hold him in high regard, and they listen to him when he needs a favor. That's why his hospital is never short on funding. I can only imagine what else he could request with only a word. If you can win his support now, you'll have the right headwind when you step into the political stage. Do you remember why I pulled you from the best prep school in the city to place you into a public run institution?"

"I do."

"These are the common people, Yusuke, and you need to learn to lead them. You need to inspire them and gain their support. Without that, you have no chance. But with it, you have no limits. But for now, your limit is Uesugi. Have you heard that name in the history books? No, because that name means nothing. It comes from the earth. Farmers, laborers, the commons. You are a Takeda. Your ancestors served Shoguns and Daimyos, Emperors and Ministers. But you, you have the talent to be more. You will carry our name to the highest echelon of the elites. Or you might. You might. But first you need to cement yourself as the brightest and most promising of your peers."

He made it sound so simple, but Takeda had heard it over and over, it was practically an anthem of their time together. How was he closing the gap? What was he trying to sharpen his edge? Then again it was never supposed to be this difficult. He was top of his class all through primary and middle school, but here, at a public school of all places, he slipped. It was all because of Uesugi, the abominable anomaly. A glitch in the program that prevented progress.

He'd beaten him once, this last final exam. But both he and his father knew the reason. He had to outclass him in every area and prove it wasn't a one time occurrence. He was the best, he had to be, because he'd been given everything he needed to. Uesugi wasn't his ceiling, he was a stepping stone into a life Uesugi could never hope to have.

But…

"I will," he said, because nothing else was allowed. That was his father's will.

"Good. Now go, Yusuke. You have work to do."

His father returned to his desk and their conversation was done. Takeda excused himself and walked upstairs to his room. He looked over his bookshelf, custom built into the wall and filled with everything his father could think to supply, and wondered if his own room was larger than the home the Uesugi's shared. He set himself up at his desk and prepared for a late night. The first of many, he realized. Then he wondered how many more he would have? He still needed the right amount of sleep to maximize his effectiveness, or all his studies would be wasted because his brain wouldn't recover and store it, all while balancing these two imbeciles and their success, and he might not even be able to do that even with Uesugi's help-

He blinked. A tear dripped onto the page, then another. Takeda growled and wiped his eyes, telling himself to get it together. There was too much left to do. He sat down and got to work.

**A/N**

So.

It's been an interesting few weeks. Certain revelations in the story deserve addressing, but I won't do it here as to avoid spoiling anything for those who haven't caught up with recent manga chapters. But now seems the perfect time to pick this story back up and carry on.

It's been a long delay, and not without reason. It was all personal, a vacation and then a move, both of which took a good chunk of my time. But things are finally settling down in my new place and I'm in a good position to continue writing. So it's back to two weeks, though I think I will make an exception to my usual Thursday updates and try posting something on Christmas Day.

Chapters 13 through 19 all have something in common: they take place in the same 24 hours. It's been a whirlwind for these characters, and we're going to start the flow of time again starting in chapter 20. I've been waiting to bring Takeda into the picture and give his character the depth I imagined him having when he was first introduced, and I hope it works in the given context of the story. His part in the story, centering in the 70's, is quite short and he's quickly shuffled to the sidelines. It's a shame, as I see him as a potentially interesting foil to Futaro. His struggles are largely going to mirror, and in some cases reverse, Uesugi's own.

This is a chapter I have mixed feelings about overall, and I might come again in the future once I've had time to separate myself from it a bit and re-write some of Takeda's section with his father, given it's importance to his character and motivation. But today, I'm happy with it and ready to publish, so please let me know what you think of it.

My goal is to have the next chapter out in just over 10 days, ready for Christmas. Call it Holiday spirit, but it feels appropriate to update around then and share my work on a holiday. So check back then and I hope to have the next chapter up. Until then, please review, favorite and follow me through the rest of this story.

Chapter published: December 14th, 2019.


	20. Meet The Uesugis

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 20**

**Meet The Uesugis**

**~Ichika~**

Look at them. Then again how could you not? They were practically broadcasting their flirting through a megaphone. But still, weren't they just so cute? She was happy for them. Really.

She'd told herself that she wouldn't make a big deal out of things in school. Nino made it perfectly clear how much she cared about their sisterhood, and Ichika would respect that in kind. She swore she'd leave things be, she'd live her own life and let them live theirs. A gentle divide would keep the peace. And she was following through wonderfully. After all, what's done was done, and she had bigger nuts to crack.

She had an interview tonight, a five-minute spot on some middling late-night talk show. Her manager insisted on accepting it after he spoke with the marketing team, they wanted to keep the film's momentum going strong into the next weekend. It wasn't anything that would jettison her into stardom, but it was a milestone. An introduction before thousands, just like she'd dreamed. She chided herself for getting so distracted before.

So she had an easy time letting things go and moving on. But she must be the only one. She kept gazing and Nino and catching her glancing her way. It almost became a game for her, she'd flash her eyes to her wayward sister and hope to catch her off guard, silently asking her what she was doing disturbing the peace. Nino looked at her pleadingly, for, what? Forgiveness? Ichika thought it was pathetic. What was she trying to say? Sorry for stabbing you in the back and waltzing over your corpse to your crush? It was too late for that.

By third period Nino appeared to give up on her, finally turning in a huff as if saying, fine, have it your way. Ichika chucked silently as Nino's face scrunched as if to sneeze. And then she didn't look her way again. All the better for her, Ichika thought. Shouldn't she be focusing on her precious lessons to impress her boy toy? Or maybe she was giving up? Was it okay to be stupid now that she got her prize? Why put in effort after you've already hitched the hog?

It got annoying, watching Nino briskly rise from her desk the instant her teacher closed his book and strike for Futaro's desk like a lightning bolt, crowding him before their poor teacher was even out the door. She looked pathetic, less than a day in the open and she acted like a bitch pissing on a tree to mark her territory. But what was worse is how pleased he looked to be talking with her. He was positively animated, she never saw him look like that! Was she trying to throw it in her face? Fine, we got it, he chose you. We're over it.

Only, not everyone was. Nino kept peeking behind her, casting those hopeful glances at her other scorned sister, poor little Miku, who was practically fading into her desk like a shadow after sunset. Her head was downcast like a falling flower, floating over an open book with nothing to learn. Her fire faded, her light stolen by a taller tree. This, more than anything done to herself, infuriated Ichika.

Did she have to flaunt her victory like a battle flag over a captured fortress? No, and that's what made it unforgiveable.

The lunch bell rang and Ichika rose for a well-earned meal. But as she tried to leave, she was stopped by an offending hand on her wrist.

"Ichika," Itsuki asked calmly, "Can we talk?"

Ichika smiled and said, "Oh, I think we did enough of that." It was a lie, there hadn't been any talking. Plenty of screaming, yes. It was well earned as this parasite chose to abandon their side for the liar and the backstabber.

"Ichika, please?" She asked lowly.

Ichika rolled her eyes and pulled away like a branch snapping, the sound echoing through the empty forest. She rubbed her wrist as if she'd brushed against the wall of a filthy labatory and felt like she needed a shower. Hadn't she warned her as she walked away that if she shut that door on them, she shut it for good? And she had, in fury and anger and ignorance. And to think she used to think Itsuki was the sensible one. Why the hell was everyone going crazy because some guy came into their life? And she suddenly wished that he'd never met them. She wished their father never hired him, she wished that Nino never lied to save his job, she wished they'd never pursued him after he quit, she wished they failed their finals and left this rotten school infected with Uesugi for good, and in every way she could imagine, she wished him gone in their past, present and future.

There was a tangible benefit to leaving that slum, and it was lunch. Mister Ebata had packed them a glorious bento made of the leftovers of their welcome home feast. And she would enjoy it surrounded by her...well, not really friends. Admirers, fans, sycophants, call them what you will, they were all the same for her. Fame had its downsides, and these people wouldn't leave her alone. Not that she terribly minded, it was a welcome reminder that she'd at last found success in her field. They asked her about working with the big names, about the parties and premieres and her upcoming projects, and she shared tidbits of her life that amused them, rewarding her with oohs and ahs and adoration glowing like a field of flourescents brightening the stage.

But there was a black hole drawing her focus from the light, and it had a name: Nino. Specifically, Nino, her arm candy, and two identical traitors crowding a lunch table. Was fate having a laugh at her today? Or was it chance that she had a perfect view of the budding couple? Well, so what? It's not like it was any of her business-oh, really? Really Nino? Was that a lunchbox just for him? She watched as Nino unwrapped the cloth and wondered, had she carved something into a little heart inside? She bet she did, the wanna-be princess would be that cliché.

She mindlessly followed the table talk, silently wondering if these girls really thought she cared what show she'd be perfect for. But her conscious was elsewhere, stuck on her lone sister eating in the corner. Miku was sitting alone at a table facing a barren wall. Her lunch was luxurious and wasted on her mood. She'd tried inviting her suddenly expanded circle, but Miku was lost to the world, trapped in a well of ineptitude and despair. Did Nino realize what she'd taken from Miku? No, how could she? She was all too wrapped up in her own-

Ichika was shocked as Nino carefully pinched a tiny carrot, carved into a heart, hadn't she called it, between her chopsticks and presented it to Futaro like an offering at a temple. But that was nothing compared to when Futaro casually leaned in and ate it.

You bitch! In public, right in front of Miku! What the fuck is wrong with you!? And Futaro, you ignorant, insensitive little nerd!

One of her companions saw it and sighed, "Wow, so they're really a thing? I never would've pictured it. It's like, a princess dating a pauper."

Another, the girl who posted the picture that started it all, said, "Come on, it's kind of cute in an opposites attract kind of way. Don't you think so, Nakano?"

Oh, she thought a great many things. A thousand bees circling a hive of malcontent, rich with sugary malice. Oh yes, so cute. Freaking adorable! Wasn't it lovely how her sister finally got her claws into what she wanted? It's not like she hadn't loathed his very existence until a month ago, no, nothing like that. It wasn't like she hadn't flip-flopped like a politician appeasing her voters to win his affection, her sisters be damned! No, this was Nino, and she always got what she wanted. Until she got bored and threw it away. It was the same with outfits, jewelry, and accessories: they were the seasonal hotness one day, and buffering a landfill the next. Because that's all he was to her, another fancy outfit to try on for a while, until it lost its appeal like the snappiness of a new phone. She'd let it linger in her closet, before tossing it out with the dirty rags and used tampons like the trash it was to make space for the next hotness.

But Futaro, oh, Futaro. Ichika pondered how wrong she'd been about him. Turns out he wasn't such a genius after all. He was just another stupid boy snared by a pretty face. No, it wasn't her snarky, identical face, or it could be someone far more deserving sitting next to him. It was something else, some quality Nino alone possessed, which made it worse. Was he just desperate? Did he jump at the first girl to bat her eyelashes at him? Even after all the abuse she put him through, he fell over her like a tree for a lumberjack into the sawmill. What a moron. A stupid, oblivious moron. On your head be your misery, Uesugi.

So she said, "Oh, it's hard to see them that way. I mean, they didn't start out like that at all."

"Oh? What were they like?"

"Like roosters in a cockfight."

"Seriously!?"

"Yeah, they were at each others' throats for months. In fact," Ichika mused, watching as Nino smiled at her captive, and she imagined how it should be, who should really be wearing that identical smile, "she gave him a little something special the day they met."

"What was it?"

"She drugged his drink. Knocked him out like a hammer smashing a light."

The table gave a collective gasp, like the obedient audience they were. One of the guys asked, "No way! Was it like, a roofie or something?"

She shrugged, "Who knows? All I know is he was down and out, for, I don't even remember how long. Wasn't the only time she drugged him, either."

A girl squealed, "Oh, my, god! What the hell, like, who even does that!?"

"My sister Nino, apparently. And I guess he likes it," she mused.

"Wow, what a couple a wierdos."

Ichika took another bite and stared at the happy couple. Her food, it was so savory.

And then she realized, didn't they truly deserve each other? If love is pain, wasn't theirs the strongest of all?

_**~Nino~**_

"Did you even look in the mirror when you did your makeup? Here, just gimme the-Nino, gimme the brush, there, now hold still, your blush is all sloppy." Yotsuba said.

"And did you even bother blow-drying your hair, or did you just step outta the shower, towel it off and call it beauty?" Itsuki chided.

Yotsuba inspected her like a chef shopping for produce, "Hmm, should we curl it?"

"Just the tips, maybe. Then we can-"

"That's enough!" Nino roared, "What the hell's gotten into you two?"

Yotsuba blinked, "We're just trying to help."

Nino fumed, "Look, all of this," she circled her face, "is done, I'm all set."

Itsuki said, "Well, all of this, "she circled her face, "needs more work."

Yotsuba said, "How long until Futaro shows up?"

Itsuki answered, "Five minutes."

"Not enough time."

"It's not."

"Want me to distract him?"

"How long can you give me?"

"How long do you need?"

Nino interrupted, "You need nothing, I'm done. See? Done. And I don't need the help of a couple of girls who wear makeup as often as a middle school boy. Why are you two getting all fussy about this anyways?"

Itsuki blinked, as if rebooting, "What? You really don't get it?"

Yotsuba sighed, "Of course she doesn't get it."

"Get what?"

And then they pressed themselves uncomfortably close, pinning her against the wall with their hope and determination. Itsuki said, "Do you know what happens if you make a good impression tonight?"

"Apparently not?"

Yotsuba continued, "You get closer to the Uesugis. You get closer to Futaro. One day you marry Futaro-"

"Whoa! When did we get here-!?"

"-And if you marry Futaro," Yotsuba continued, shooting Itsuki a knowing glance, before exploding, "Raiha becomes our little sister!"

Nino deadpanned, "Oh you can't be serious."

"Oh, this is very serious," Itsuki grabbed her shoulder and held her firm, her gaze a wildfire brimming with hope she focused into her sister, "so you do not mess this up for us. Got it? We are not losing Raiha!"

Nino daintily lifted her crazed sister's hands from her shoulders and slipped away like a salmon escaping the black bear's maw, "Okay, back up, all the way. I've already met them, or did you forget that trip to the hot springs? What's the worst that can happen?"

"We lose Raiha," Yotsuba said, with Itsuki nodding tensely at the obvious.

Itsuki said, "So hold still and let us help you."

Nino groaned, "What's left to fix? I did this myself, I look fantastic! Don't I?"

"Mostly, but there's room for improvement."

"Like where?"

"Your blush. It looks...how do I say it?" Itsuki trailed off.

Yotsuba chimed in, "It looks whorish!"

"WHAT!?"

"That's the word! Whorish!" Itsuki agreed.

There was a knocking on the door. Futaro, you perfectly punctual savior! Nino threw the door open, saying, "Get me outta here!"

Futaro blinked, "You're actually ready on time?"

"Thanks for the show of faith," Nino mocked as she slid on her shoes and grabbed the raspberry pie she'd made for dessert. She clicked the lock and closed the door behind her, asking, "How far is it again?"

"Not far, we can walk it."

That didn't surprise her, like home near like home. She remembered how surprising it had been to learn how close he'd lived to their old place. How could such a run-down neighborhood be a jog away? Now she was living in it, paying for the negative karma of her thoughts.

She thought she'd escaped her sisters' intensity. She thought wrong. They opened the bathroom window as they descended the stairs.

Itsuki screamed, "Nino, do your best!"

"Bring us that sister!" Yotsuba cheered.

Nino beamed, blushing like a lighthouse on a cloudy night. She screamed, "Sh-shut up!"

Futaro calmly glanced from the window to the sky, "Hmm. No pressure, huh?"

"You know what they're talking about?"

He shrugged, "Isn't it obvious?"

"I didn't know it was."

"Raiha decided to join us for the morning run today. Yotsuba was so excited that the two of them ran off and forgot me when I stopped to rest. They ran another two miles before they realized they forgot me." Futaro sighed pleasantly, "It was such a good break."

Futaro took her hand, it was warm in hers, like holding a hot pack with her hand buried in her pocket. And as they walked, Nino thought on what her sisters said, about meeting his family for the first time as an official girlfriend. It shouldn't be anything spectacular or noteworthy, after all they had met before. She'd spoken with Riaha, at one point or another. And as for his father, they may have only met the one time, but they had...made eye contact? Wait, was that it? Had they really never spoken a single word to each other outside of the initial hello?

And Nino marveled at just how closely Futaro had tied into her own family. Too closely, if the red webs of romantic string tangled into an unintelligible knot was any sign. But even with her father, well, he definitely wasn't close, but they at least knew where he stood.

What did Raiha think of her? Anything at all? She decided to count down her family: there were Yotsuba and Itsuki who wanted to kidnap her and never give her back, then there were Ichika and Miku who agreed she was as adorable as a baby kitten born with puppy-dog eyes. Then there was her...who didn't get it. She just didn't get it. Raiha was a kid, a cute one, perhaps, but just a kid, and she never went out of her way to bond with her. But Raiha was close with the rest of her family, so that had to count for something, right? And as for his father, he seemed like a nice enough guy. She remembered him being sociable during the trip to the hot springs. Would he be the same with her now?

But what if he didn't? What if both of them didn't? And this stream of questions proved the droplets that toppled the dam she'd unknowingly held back. A flood of questions she'd brushed aside as unimportant and unlikely to matter came to the forefront of her mind. What if they didn't like her look? What if they thought she was too nosy? Too talkative? Or if she wasn't talkative enough? What will they think when they find out she never knew her birth father? And the point of everything was this: what if they didn't like her? And what if they disapproved of their relationship? What if they tell him to break up? They were already against her papa and two of her sisters, what would they do if his family turned against them as well?

"Hey," Futaro asked, "What's up?"

"Huh? Nothing," Nino said quickly.

"You're breathing hard, like you were running or something."

Nino vigorously shook her head, "It's really nothing, I mean...maybe it's something."

"Nervous?"

"A little."

He squeezed her hand, "Don't be, they're going to love you."

"You really think so?" she asked hopefully.

"I told them all the good stuff, you'll be fine."

And like an antidote to a toxin, or even a placebo, his assurance settled her nerves like an anchor settles a ship. Still, she decided to check herself one more time. In case she really did look whorish.

"We're here," he said at last as they arrived at an old apartment complex, a series of buildings that the city wanted to forget. She marveled at the dull gray color of the exterior; either the building manager had a taste for the uninspired and cheap, or paint was seen as a luxury they could not afford. Itsuki's descriptions were all making sense now.

"It's, quaint," she tried.

"Thanks. It's a dump."

"Yeah, I was being nice."

"But a livable dump."

"Like our place?"

"Not quite that nice."

"Oh."

Thirty steps separated her from her trial, er, meeting. Then twenty. Fifteen…

Futaro felt her heartbeat in her palm. He stopped and squeezed her hand. "It's okay," he said.

She nodded, "I know."

"I love you," he said.

Yup, that did it. Who said magic words were a fantasy? She leaned up and kissed him, "I love you too. Let's do this."

They climbed the stairs and Futaro knocked on the door, "Dad, it's me."

The door opened and exposed a specimin of a man. He looked like the Kintaro guise she'd so enjoyed in the forest if Kintaro had grown up. His hair was bleached and naturally styled into an effortless, endearing mess. If Futaro and her somehow stayed together into the decades and his genetics led him in this direction, she could definitely live with that.

Except for the frown. Why was he frowning?

"So this is her?" he asked, his voice low with disinterest.

Futaro seemed confused, "Yeah, who else?"

Itsuki and Yotsuba had barraged her with practical advice while she readied herself in the vanity. Smile brightly! Back straight! Speak formally! Please and thank you are practically periods, use them! Compliment everything you see. All that, and so much more. She wished she'd actually paid attention.

She stood stiff as an ironing board, the good kind, not the piece of crap she currently kept in her closet. "Hello, mister Uesugi. I'm-"

"Yeah yeah, I know who you are."

She stuttered, "Oh? Right, of course. I just thought-"

"What's that?" he pointed to the package she carried.

Futaro said, "It's a pie, dad."

"I asked her, not you," his father said, then he asked her, "Store bought?"

"No, sir, I made it myself. For after dinner."

"What kind is it?"

Why did he say that like it was a test? Was tutoring genetic? "It's raspberry."

His eyes widened, "Did you think to ask if anyone in this house is allergic?"

She paled, oh no. "Uh, I didn't think, I mean I didn't know that you could be-"

Futaro seethed, "Dad, we're not allergic to anything."

"The point stands, it's basic etiquette," he sighed, then waved them inside. "Come in, then. It's almost time for dinner."

Nino stood solid, a flash-frozen TV dinner from Uesugi's icy welcoming. She asked Futaro, "What just happened?"

He opened his mouth, too soon, still forming an answer, "I have no idea. Maybe he had a bad day at work? Give it a minute, things'll lighten up."

His confidence appeared misplaced as they stepped in the door. He was helping her with her coat when Raiha greeted them from the kitchen, "Hi big bro! Hi Nino! You're the one that drugged him, right?"

Hope makes no noise when it dies, it's the acrid silence of a hostile room. Nino breathed, "Oh, he told you about that."

"Yup!

She whispered to Futaro, "I thought you only told them the good things!"

Futaro coughed, "Well, I did, along with the rest...it was a while ago...and we kind of have a thing in our family about no secrets."

Raiha cheered, "Yeah, no secrets!"

His father said, "I'm aware he did the same to you not too long ago, Nakano. I'm sorry about that. Normally he'd never do such a thing."

Nino waved it off, "Oh, it was nothing, he was trying to-"

"It appears you bring out that side of my son."

She felt like she should be running for cover with all these bombs he was dropping. The door was only a few feet away…

Mister Uesugi motioned to the kotatsu and said, "Might as well have a seat. Raiha will be done with dinner shortly."

Futaro took her hand, she noticed he was warming up himself. At least she wasn't alone. He spoke tersely, "Sure thing, dad. Sounds wonderful."

They took seats on opposite sides. Mister Uesugi tapped his finger on the table and stared into Nino. Not at. Into. His gaze was firm, like a strobe light honed in on an escaping convict, tracking every little detail, every gesture in a blinding light. Nino struggled to keep her poise under the accusing stare.

Nino tried to improve the mood, saying, "It's a lovely home you have, mister Uesugi."

"What're you talking about? It's a slum."

"I mean, you make it look homely-"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"No! I just..." she trailed off, not sure where this was going.

Futaro, for being as dense as a lead deposit, couldn't miss the uncomfortable air between his girlfriend and his father. Nino was like a tree struggling against the howling wind. She needed a buffer. So he stepped in and said, "So, dad works at a factory as a lineman, and at a warehouse as a foreman. Why don't you tell her about it, dad?"

"It's back-breaking and the hours are long."

Nino said, "Well you look good for a man bearing all that."

He said, "Futaro tells me you're struggling in school."

She nearly got whiplash from that transition. "Er, yes, but he's been a big help."

"He'd better be, his grades fell because of it."

"My sisters and I wouldn't have passed without your son's tutoring."

He nodded, lamenting, "So it's as bad as I thought."

Nino felt like she'd been slapped. She chomped her snark back and swallowed it, hoping to save the evening. But Futaro as a son had more freedom to maneuver and said, "Like you were a model student, dad."

"A passing one, though. And look where that got me? Young people should learn from their elders' mistakes and avoid that kind of failure." He returned to his inquisition of Nino, asking, "So what do you plan to do after graduating?"

She perked up, "Oh? I'm not entirely sure yet-"

"Not much of a planner, I see."

"But I was thinking of working as a chef someday, or a baker! I even thought about starting my own restaurant someday."

He nodded, "Ah, a noble profession." Nino was elated for just a moment, then he continued, "And a very volatile business, almost all new restaurants go under within a few years. No stability at all." How fragile was hope for it to die in so few words.

"Dinner's ready!" Raiha announced as she set forth a series of plates. Nino observed the bubbling hot curry rice. A simple dish, but impressive from a girl as young as her. She wasn't surprised if she'd been tasked with the cooking for so long.

"Wow Nino, your dress is really pretty," she said.

Nino smiled and looked down at her dress, a long evening piece bluer than the deep sea designed to impress. It was part of her collection she'd brought it from her old place. It was flatteringly modest and long enough to appease all but the most conservative eye, it aimed for elegance, not showiness. She hadn't wanted them thinking badly of her style, for all the good it did her now. She said, "Thank you Raiha, it's an old favorite I had lying around."

Raiha looked down at her own outfit, a blouse and jeans, and said, "I'm a bit sad though, I feel so underdressed next to you."

Her father nodded, "Indeed, she looks like she belongs at a ball, not a dingy apartment."

Nino flinched. Futaro said through clenched teeth, "If it bothers you so much, Raiha, stop complaining and go change."

"Nah, I'm comfy," Raiha said as she pulled out her phone, "It might be the only kind of outfit she has, dad. I was scrolling through her instagram earlier and she was always dressed in these super pretty clothes, like the ones in the window displays where they don't show the price tags unless you ask."

Dad nodded, "I see. What else did you find out on this, er, the instagram?"

"She's kind of a basic bitch."

Nino, who'd been feeling like a coal in the embers, had been taking a sip of water to cool off. She nearly choked on it. She coughed it down and stared open mouthed at her accuser, who was sitting there so innocently. Itsuki and Yotsuba would see an angel. Now she knew better.

Suddenly Raiha whined, "Dad, bro's looking at me funny."

Funny? That wasn't the word she'd use to describe his face. He looked like a dog struggling against his leash, garnished with a sneer promising revenge. He said lowly, "Raiha, what are you doing?"

His father snapped, "Futaro! Don't talk to your sister like that!"

"How am I the one in the wrong here!?"

He said, "Everyone, calm down. It's time we eat."

Nino gripped his hand and silently asked him to back down. She didn't want the family starting a fight over her. She didn't want any more enemies, and she clung to the chance that maybe, just maybe, they could turn this around. Futaro swallowed his comment and picked up his spoon. Nino did the same, thinking a lull in the conversation and a chance to fill their bellies might set the atmosphere straight.

She took a bite. She regretted it. For this was not simple rice curry, oh no, Raiha was not so simple a chef. This was an ember taken from the fires of hell and plopped on a plate! And oh, it burned! It burned like the spices were taking jackhammers on a journey through her tongue and beyond!

"You okay, Nino?" Futaro asked after he swallowed.

She noticed his father watching her as he chewed his own bite, with Raiha cheerily shoving another spoonful into her mouth. How were they not on fire!?

She breathed, "Yeah, fine." Futaro nodded and took another bite. Nino marveled at how easily he swallowed fire, add a sword to his routine and he'd be a carney. And then she understood. It was no wonder he couldn't tell the difference between her masterful cooking and Miku's plated disaster. This little brat cauterized his taste buds!

"Nino?" Raiha asked worriedly, "Don't you like it?"

Wow her eyes got big. Maybe that's why Itsuki and Yotsuba loved her. But she still didn't get it. But she did get that mister Uesugi's eyes were still peering into her soul looking for more to criticize, so she plastered a grin on her face and said, "Oh, it's delicious. Very flavorful. Very."

"Good! I made it special for you," Raiha cheered.

A good attempt, but now she had to follow it up with action. She tepidly filled another spoon with what could very well serve as lighter fluid, said a prayer, and ate it. Then another, and another, muffling her body's cries for mercy with willpower alone. And water, so much water. She'd drained her glass after the fifth bite, and yet the pain lingered like lava running down her throat. She needed something stronger.

"Excuse me," she asked tepidly, hiding her burning, "Could I please have some milk?"

Mister Uesugi showed mercy and said, "Sure, it's right there in the fridge."

Nino politely got up and walked as briskfully as grace allowed to the fridge. She grabbed the milk, but wanted to cry when she saw the expiry date. "Ah, I think it's expired."

"So? It's pasteurized. Still good."

She checked again. A week gone. She was not drinking that. She sighed in defeat. Then she said, "Can I be excused to the toilet for a minute?"

"Sure, right there," his father said. Nino hurried inside, but not before hearing him say, "Too good for our milk, eh?"

Raiha added, "I miss Itsuki."

She slid the door shut, and with the barrier established she allowed the torrent of negative thoughts to come pouring out. What the fuck was happening!? Were they trying to find reasons to hate her!? She'd been doomed from the start! Now they'd hate her and they'd tell Futaro to break up with her and that was just great! Just great! Now just about everyone was against them! All that was left was for Itsuki and Yotsuba to turn tail and they'd be a modern love tragedy!

She ran the sink and filled her hands with water, drinking deeply to fight the spice. Her throat burned and she wanted to cry and scream at everything that went wrong!

"Nino?" Futaro said as he stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. "Are you okay?"

Nino scoffed, "Am I okay? Do I look okay to you?"

"No."

She wanted to laugh, it was rhetorical, you dumbass. "Why are they being like this? Did you know?"

"Hey, they're never like this. It's like they've been kidnapped and replaced with evil twins."

"That's stupid."

"I know." He took her hand, he'd been doing a lot of that tonight, but it wasn't getting old. But it also wasn't helping anymore.

She asked, "At least we're still on the same side, right?"

"Right."

Then a voice carried through the door, "You better not be doing anything with my son in there."

And that was it, the final straw snapping like the cable of a bridge bringing the whole thing down. Nino sneered and charged past Futaro out the door. Fuck it! There was no hope of winning them over, so she might as well be as brutally honest as they deserved. She screamed, "What the hell is your problem!?"

His father raised an eyebrow, saying, "Oh, you're even swearing now-"

"Damn right I am! And that's nothing compared to all the dry comments about me and my dreams and even my outfit! If you hate me, go ahead and say it, stop beating around the bush."

They locked eyes, sparks would fly if glares had mass to grind against each other. Finally he said, "Sit, both of you."

"Why should we?"

"Because I'm going to say it. Now sit."

Futaro said, "Dad, what are you-"

"Futaro," his father said sternly, "do as I say."

"Come on, Fuu," she said, taking her seat. It was clear they'd already made up their minds about her, she hadn't stood a chance. But she wasn't giving up on Futaro, not for them, and especially not when they behaved like this. Futaro sighed and sat next to her.

Their father began, "Do you think I hate you?"

"Yes."

"Would you believe I don't?"

"Not really."

"This is probably the most honest I've seen you all evening."

"It can't make things any worse than they are."

He nodded, closing his eyes to think, "You might be surprised. We don't keep secrets in our family. My son has told us about his tutoring job from the very beginning. You might say we were along for the ride as well, on a different track. And I remember thinking, one guy with five girls? Something could happen."

"And you wish it were Itsuki instead?"

"On the contrary, I'm glad it's you."

Nino blinked, "What?"

"You stood with my son through all my questioning, and he stood with you against us. That tells me everything I need to know." Then out of nowhere, he smiled, "You didn't suspect a thing, huh?"

Raiha burst out laughing, "Haha! Daddy tricked you, big bro!"

Futaro fumed, "Oh, you two...you're gonna pay for this."

Nino felt slapped, only the opposite. She'd come out of the bathroom breathing fumes and ready for a fight. And now it was all taken away with a smile. "This was...a test?"

"You can say that."

"What's with this family and tests..." she breathed lifelessly.

He shrugged, "Beats me. But test or not, I can say I'm glad my son ended up dating you. So, Nino, it's good to meet you. You're welcome to stay with this family as long as you like."

Nino's mind was still trying to orient itself to the sudden change of direction. The last thing she needed was another whirlwind, which of course is what arrived.

The door burst open, Itsuki and Yotsuba flooded into the tiny home, shouting, "Yes! She's ours!"

Raiha lit up, "Itsuki! Yotsuba!"

"Come here little sis!" They screamed as the three tackled in a victory hug that atomized the space between them.

"Where the hell did you come from!?" Nino screamed.

Futaro blanked, "Were you just sitting outside this whole time?"

"Yup!" Yotsuba announced, "You have thin doors, Futaro."

Nino twisted as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Futaro's father said, "Can I have a word alone with you, Nakano?"

She really didn't want to, this man weirded her out like a clown on the street. But his eyes shifted, they were warm like coals on a chilly night. She said, "Uh, sure."

Futaro said, "Dad, what're you trying to do?"

"We'll just be a minute, Futaro. Hold down the fort for me."

"What about no secrets!?"

"No secrets, just things a father must tell his son's girlfriend."

_**~Nino~**_

Three steps. That's the distance she kept between mister Uesugi and herself. She didn't feel comfortable walking side by side with him and he didn't press, he seemed to understand her trepidation. So he led on with her exactly three steps behind, letting her wonder how far he expected her to follow.

He led her down a busy shopping strip a block away, it was filled with old mom-and-pop shops that might go back three or more generations. Small crowds of people were busily finishing and beginning their evenings here. She drew her coat closer around herself as she noticed a few older men eyeing her as they passed. She wished Futaro was here. She wanted to go back.

Then mister Uesugi stopped outside a shop window. It was closed and only the street lamps illuminated a hint of what was inside. He pointed to something on display, "See that there?"

Nino followed his finger to a small rectangle, an old music box and a lever to wind it. It must be older than he was, who even made them anymore?

"His mother had one just like that. She used to play it for us every night before bed. Did Futaro ever tell you about her?"

She remembered, "Just that she died, a few years ago. And the hospital bills, from her treatment."

He nodded, "And when he was just a boy, they were inseparable. I have hundreds of pictures of them together, and I don't think they're frowning in a single one. He was her precious little man, and until Raiha came along he was her everything. And even after Raiha was born, she never really let that go. I don't think she ever would have. I used to joke that it'd be impossible for him to find a girlfriend because she'd scare them away. No girl would ever be good enough to date her son, not to her. She told me how the first time he brought a girl home to meet us, she'd grill her like a cheap steak and toss her out if she burned." Then he smiled at her, "But she never got to, but I know she'd want it done, to see if the girl could stand with Futaro through hard times. So I hope you'll forgive me, but I had to do it just once. For her, you know? I figured you'd understand, after the trial you gave him tutoring your sisters."

Ah, well Nino couldn't really fight that. She'd all but slammed the doors, connived new innovations to disturb, disrupt and defeat Futaro's efforts at education. And look where they were now. "I get it, but it..."

"It hurt, I know," he admitted, "And please forgive me, but I can't say I'm sorry. See, I did it for me, too."

"What do you mean?"

"Most boys I see want to be like their fathers. But Futaro was different, he was his mother's child since he could crawl. He has more than her hair and her smile and her laugh, he has her heart. So he always wanted to be like her, insisting he'd be like momma when he grew up. But then she got sick, and slowly wasted away. And as she died, I think he watched me taking care of her, and decided he wanted that strength to deal with his sadness. Like, if he could be like me, it wouldn't hurt so much losing her. It didn't matter if it tore me apart too, I didn't show it to him, so he only saw a way to move on. So he became a little punk like me, acting like he didn't care about school, or friends, or anything really. But then he takes a class trip out of town and comes back a dedicated academic wishing he was an unfeeling robot or something. That was five years ago, and it's been like that ever since. Until," he pointed at her, "you.

"You did something that changed him, you opened him up to a new part of himself he was pretending didn't exist. Now he's understanding that academics and intelligence are only a part of what he needs to live the life he wanted, one with meaning to others. And it was you that brought that out of him, no one else. Not me, not Raiha, not your sisters, you. So the truth is I've been on your side from the beginning. I tested you because I wanted to see what kind of person you were. And you endured as much as I gave you to impress me, because you care about my son. And that's all I ever wanted from the girl my son chose to love."

A shift in perspective is a powerful thing. Here was this man she'd come to see as an enemy, one of many to her choices, and suddenly he was the man she'd hoped he'd be. Someone who approved of them, even supported them. But…it hurt. Every swipe at her character, it had hurt.

"So all that, was a test? And now that it's over, what, we're supposed to be good? Like you can take it all back? What you and Raiha did-"

He waved her down, "Yeah, I know. If I were you, and I was once, I'd be upset. And I understand if you are for a while. But I did what I did for my son's sake, to make sure I understood the kind of person he wants to be with. Futaro told me how protective you are of your family, so I think you'll understand."

Ah, that hit closer to home than she was ready for. Struggling against an unknown to protect the people you love. That was something she knew intrinsically.

He continued, "You see, my wife's family was the same. The day I met them was a crucible, I thought they hated me from the start. The difference between me and you, is that I was right in how they thought of me. They thought their daughter could do so much better than me," he paused, "And they were right. But she still chose to love me. I'd say it worked out in the end."

She said, "Yeah, but still, it just," she paused, "Some of what you said, it was cruel. And Raiha-"

"Raiha followed my lead. And she's young, she doesn't know how to deal with this."

"With what? Does she really hate me?"

"No, it's not that. It's just, you have to understand, she had her own ideas how this should've gone. She's closest with your sister Itsuki, do you know that? She adores her. And I think she wanted her brother and Itsuki to end up falling in love."

Nino had seen the signs like grafitti on the bathroom wall, but it still hurt to her someone admit it. She said sadly, "I had a feeling."

"She's a kid, give her time to warm up. I think she'll like you once she gets to know you." He paused, then offered his hand, "As for us, now that I know you, I'd like to start over fresh and move past this. Can we do that?"

Nino looked at the proffered hand questioningly. Five minutes ago, she would have hesitated, but hearing him speak so genuinely, it was refreshing having an adult speak to her like that, like an equal. And maybe she could understand why he did what he did, and she thought, wouldn't she have done the exact same thing if one of her sisters brought a boy home? She'd probably team up with her father as the opposition. And just once, she wanted someone outside of her family on their side. So she took it, "Alright, I'll try."

He said, "Nakano, can I call you Nino?"

"Alright."

"Nino, I have just one favor to ask."

"What is it?"

"My son grew up wanting to be like mom, then his dad, and then he wanted to be like no one ever was. Now I think he wants to be himself, his whole self. And I think he's still discovering how to do that. You've had more to do with that than anyone, and you still do. Who he becomes, and what he thinks of love and relationships, that's all going to depend on what happens between you. I just want you to understand what that means. I won't ask you to put up with anything unreasonable, and if you're ever unhappy I understand if you want to end it. I just want you to remember that. Can you please do that?"

Nino already knew her answer, "I'm not going to hurt him, I love him."

He laughed, "He's your first boyfriend, isn't he."

"How do you know that?"

"You're going to hurt each other, it's inevitable. But, it doesn't have to be meaningless. That's what love is, really, it's choosing who we want to hurt for." He laughed, then waved it off, "Sorry, I'm droning on. Let's head back, shall we? I feel bad leaving Futaro to deal with those three by himself."

"I don't. He led me straight into a hornet's nest."

"About that, I didn't tell him."

"I noticed. He still did it."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get an earful once you leave. So, how about we break out that pie after we get back? It smelled delicious, by the way."

Nino said, "I think I've lost my appetite."

"It's been a night, hasn't it?"

"It was the spice."

"Oh. It was a little strong, huh?"

"My insides were melting."

"It'll stop in a bit. How about we pass the time until it comes back?"

"How?"

He mused, "Well, remember how I said he imitated his mom when he was young?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I have a lot of pictures stashed away of him going adorably far with that. Wanna see?"

And with a vague image of baby Futaro dressed in an oversized summer dress, Nino realized tonight was going to end up a good one after all.

**A/N**

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone. I'd like to spread some holiday cheer, and I hope I can inspire a few of you to join me. Let me start with this: we all enjoy this story and this fandom, it's lively and wholesome (for the most part) and has generated a lot of quality work. As someone producing this work, I want to express the amount of effort it can take to pen or paint something into reality. It's an effort of love, passion, and an opening of oneself to others in a very vulnerable way. It takes courage to post something you make, and I think that deserves recognition. So what I'd like to ask is that on this holiday, you, the readers, provide that. These authors and artists want to know that people appreciate their work, and that it has touched someone in some way. And I'm not just speaking on behalf of this story, it's the highest reviewed story in the fandom thus far, but more for the stories that don't receive as much attention. Working on a chapter and publishing it to the world, and hearing crickets, that can be defeating, and people will stop writing and drawing if no one seems to care. Someone taking the time to leave a comment, however long, is a boon so powerful a non-writer cannot imagine. So if you could, please go back to those stories you've read and enjoyed and leave a review or a comment, and let them know that you did care, even if you don't have anything more to say than that. I guarantee it will make someone's day, and even encourage them to continue. That's how a fandom stays active, that simple human connection. I hope you'll understand and reach out to each other.

So, onto the manga. And again, it's an interesting time. It feels like this chapter reflects a lot going on in 115. I'm pleased the author is showing actual fallout to broken hearts, that's how it should be done. Egos are damaged from this. I've gone in a different route with that pain, as seen in Ichika. Put yourself into her mind, and see how easy it is to justify her actions in her eyes. She's okay, she tells herself. It's Miku she worries for. Little lies we tell ourselves to make us feel righteous. Keep in mind that this whole story takes place before chapter 74, before she began the big lie, so she still has much to learn and grow from.

On another note, I'm going to raise this story's rating from T to M starting next chapter due to a certain situation that will arise. It won't be smut, but it will be a young man and young woman realizing new parts of their relationship that neither of them knew of, or were prepared to handle. Sex is an unavoidable topic in relationships, and it would be a disservice to avoid it for the sake of some imagined propriety.

I came back from a vacation and a difficult move to welcomes and support from you guys, and I want to say how much I appreciate that. To know that people were waiting for me to continue just gives me more reason to do so. So two weeks, that's my schedule, every other Thursday. As long as I have time, I'll keep clacking away. So onward and upwards, to the next chapter. Please review, and then go do it for someone else and make their day.

Chapter published: December 25th, 2019.


	21. Arousing Appetites

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 21**

**Arousing Appetites**

_**~Ichika~**_

She would have left them alone. She didn't want to be involved in their childish affair. What good was done by turning this into a spectacle? Maybe she wanted to, somewhere deep down. Maybe she wanted to bring their misdeeds into the daylight and crush them with their shame like ants under a magnified sun. But she was better than that. She could let it be.

Or she could have. Except they kept throwing themselves in her face.

Maybe not directly. Nino, and even Futaro seemed to understand the delicate equilibrium that kept their world spinning. They were like a plate spinning on a stick. Two sides, separate and never to see the other, but spinning together nonetheless. How nice it would have been to spin ignorant of the equal world below. But action echoed easily in close halls, and so it did today.

"Oh my god, Nakano, you gotta hear this. I was heading back from the gym, right, but I was late because these girls used up all the hot water and this building is so old it took forever for it to come back, so, anyways, I was running up the stairs and I heard a noise from the top floor, and guess what I saw. Go ahead, guess. No, no, okay I'll just tell you. It was your sister making out with the class rep! Lips smacked together like out of a soap or something!"

And it was too much for her. She wanted to leave it alone, she did. But it just kept coming back. They couldn't even keep from face-fucking each other for a fucking school day! So why shouldn't she let off a little steam, she thought? If they insisted on airing their dirty laundry for the world, surely she was allowed to do the same. It was only fair.

"Oh, that's no surprise. Not with the way she talked about kissing before."

"Ooh, I sense a story in there."

"There might be, oh, it's nothing special. Just a little something that happened over break."

"Come on, Nakano, what happened? I gotta know!"

"Well my sister was already smitten with him, but you see, she was worried that he wouldn't like her if she wasn't a good kisser."

"Please, she was worried a guy like Uesugi wouldn't like her? For anything? Have you seen him?"

"I guess love does funny things to your head. But she had a plan to fix this. She wanted to practice."

"Ugh, seriously? Sounds Skanky. So she just found some rando off the street?"

Ichika smiled, "Well, no, actually, it's all very funny. She wanted to practice with me!"

"WHAT!? She wanted to make out with you!?"

"She said it was okay, since we're quintuplets."

"That is so. Freaking. Weird. So did you-"

"No, no. She tried, god, I was surprised how enthusiastic she was, but I got away."

"Freaking lecher! Who even does that!?" She turned, waving down a friend. "Emi! Come here! You gotta hear this!"

_**~Nino~**_

"Fuu, tell me a secret."

"No."

"Just tell me!"

"Why are you on about this all of a sudden?"

"What's the problem? Got something to hide?"

"Nothing in particular."

"A boyfriend shouldn't keep secrets from his girlfriend."

"Where's that written?"

"It doesn't need to be. I expect absolute honesty in my relationship."

"So what, you want a list or something?"

"You're making this so complicated! Just tell me a secret, something you never told anyone else."

"Why?"

"Because it's, ugh, it's supposed to be romantic."

"Huh. Okay, you go first."

"What? Why me?"

"You started it. Give me an example."

"No fair! I asked first!"

"Lead by example!"

"It feels weird!"

"That's equality."

"Hmph! Fine. But yours better be good! Let me think..."

"You ever drug anyone else?"

"What!? No!"

"Then why did you have it?"

"It's a sleeping aid dad gave me! I never used it on anyone else before, you were just so stubborn back then!"

"Ah, I see. So why did you need it?"

"I have nightmares. Sometimes. About mom, and stuff. It's hard to get back to sleep."

"I see."

"So go on, your turn."

"Fair's fair. There is something I wanted to tell you."

"Then you should've told me in the first place-"

"You might get mad. Really mad."

"Oh. What did you do?"

"Don't look at me like that, it wasn't me. Remember our trip to the hot springs? Well on the day we left, one of you ran up to me under that bell, tackled me, and kissed me."

"Oh, that's all? That was me."

"I thought so."

"How? You couldn't tell me apart back then."

"Yeah, but you were the only one I knew liked me that way, so I assumed. But then I found out Miku and Ichika liked me too, and I've been wondering about it for the past couple days."

"Well rest assured it was all me!"

"So why'd you do it?"

"Oh, well..."

"Go on. It was my first kiss. First you drug me, then the assault-"

"I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"

"An accident?"

"I just wanted to ring the bell with you, real quickly. They say that any couple who rings the bell will stay together forever. It's so romantic and I just had to do it! But then I tripped when I reached for it and it just kinda...happened. I was so stupid! Like, that was my first kiss, you know that? And it happened because of some dirty tree root sticking out of the ground!"

"Yeah, I'm aware," Futaro sighed and squeezed her hand. "You could've told me."

"I wanted to forget, so that it didn't count. I wanted my first kiss to be romantic."

"Why forget? It happened. Could've been worse," Futaro said.

Nino leaned in closer, grabbing his arm, "Did you hope it was me?"

"I remember thinking it better be, I couldn't handle more than one of you being into me like that."

Nino growled as they rounded the corner, approaching her home. "But you were hoping it was me, somewhere deep down, right?"

"I wasn't interested in anything like that, not then." Futaro paused, thinking back. "But looking back, I'm glad it worked out that way."

She grinned, "Good! Now, let's get inside."

The door opened with its usual groan of protest, like a child complaining of an evening chore. Futaro set the cleaning supplies at the entrance and called, "Yotsuba, we're back. How was the market?"

Nino listened for her cry as she took off her shoes. Nothing came, they were greeted by an empty home. Futaro asked, "She must've been held up."

"Lemme call." Nino checked her phone, finally noticing a string of missed texts. "Looks like she texted me. Lemme see..." She opened the text, the first thing to load was a string of pictures, the first a sign with a number carved in half and far too many exclamation marks. The sign's excitement was eclipsed only by Yotsuba's cheery face as she marked the sign as a prize. Her message read, _Half off! Eggs half off! All we can eat, baby! Can I get some? Please plz plz plz plz pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease!?_

She texted back, _You're still at the shop?_

Her reply was instantaneous, _Ya! Can I buy some? Please!?_

Nino mused what she could do with a few dozen eggs. It'd give her some flexibility with their shrinking food budget. She texted back, _Five dozen, and be careful not to drop any!_

_WHOOOOOOOO!_

"She's running late, there's a sale," she told Futaro.

"Oh," he replied lamely, like his brain tripped over a speed bump. He said, "How long did Itsuki say she'd be with Raiha?"

"It's your sister, shouldn't you know?"

"I forgot."

"Geez. She'll be here by dinner, after dropping Raiha off. Wonderful brothering, there."

"So it's just the two of us for now?"

"Looks like it."

In a flash the air was sucked out of the room and replaced with something, a gas, as charged as a rail gun ready to rock the world of warfare. She knew it. She knew he knew it. She could see it in the way he held himself, a little straighter, like a lion gazing across the savanna. She kept that reaction inside, giving no hint that she'd noticed.

After all, certain thoughts were inevitable when a boy and a girl were home alone.

It was a gift horse, the product of chance not likely repeated anytime soon. She saw this realization on Futaro's face. They'd taken what chances they could, they'd stolen into a corner between every few periods for a moment of bliss. Just hugging, some kissing, maybe venturing away from the lips once or twice, and it was glorious. It made her understand why all was fair in love and war, anything was worth those elated heights. And she saw it inside him, he knew it too. Ever since that night, something was coming alive inside him. And it was hungry, and each small feeding only made it realize how bottomless that hunger could be.

She caught Futaro looking at her as he stored the cleaning supplies under the sink. He watched her for a sign, a hint at reception that would be his excuse. He was used to it from her. She diligently ignored it and prepped ingredients for dinner. She knew what was coming. But she didn't want to be the one chasing it. How long had she been the trigger in their relationship? She was the pursuer, he the pursued. It happened ever since that night in the bakery, to the hot springs to the bell to beyond. Now it was his turn. She wanted him to chase her, then to dance away with a wink, only to be caught a moment later like a, well, like a princess in a castle, or a gazette taken down on the plains. If Futaro could get off his ass and make a move.

All but a week ago, she'd have been left disappointed. He'd had the romantic interest of a puddle of wet cement. But now he was a broken dam, a river reclaiming its natural shape. He closed the cabinet and leaned into her, "Nino, can you stop?"

"Hang on, I'm busy," she brushed him off as she chopped zucchini.

Futaro persisted, and she felt like a fisherwoman reeling in her catch. He said, "How long until you think Yotsuba gets back?"

"Hmm, twenty minutes?"

"So we have time."

"For what?"

Futaro sneered, "Don't play dumb."

Oh, but how she loved to play. Didn't Futaro learn anything about her? Nino looked at him and batted her eyes like an innocent sprite in a spring, "Whatever are you referring to?"

Futaro darkened, "Do I need to remind you?"

Nino put down her knife and turned, "Mayb-mmmph!"

He kissed her. He kissed her with a force of a wind lashing a mountain, like a fish struggling in her net and she wanted to cheer, yes! She caught him! She could make him move on her, she could make him want to kiss her like a cat chasing a shiny red dot.

They started heavy, at least heavy as they knew it. Lips pressed tight enough to survive in a vacuum, eagerly shifting against each other like waves lashing in a storm, tongues tentatively poking out like groundhogs fearful of shadows. But they were still amateurs, kissing was an art developed over time, and practice, from one person to the next. Each kiss was a unique piece, and like two artists collaborating, one piece was never the same as before. What moments they could steal before had been brief, and wrought with the fear of prying eyes. Now they had a space all to themselves, and they used it.

Nino fell into his lips, he fell into hers, and they memorized the feel of those soft, plump lines. She found he had a pattern, opening his mouth almost in a circle right before bringing out his tongue. She learned to read his movements and ride them like a ship on the wave, working together to bring about a marvelous voyage. And suddenly they were no longer kissing. These were not stolen pecks in the shadows, this was the spectacle made famous by the French. This was kissing evolved. This was making out. Time was lost in each others' lips. This was theWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH THAT'S A DICK! DEFINITELY A DICK! SWEET MOTHER OF MARY THERE WAS A DICK AGAINST HER BELLY!

Evolution was to thank for this wonderful phenomena. Not the dick of course, it was the female response. There was a sliver of brainpower dedicated to eternal vigilance, an alarm evolved for a single purpose. It possessed a total awareness of the body, and specifically, the presence of the male dick. Every female subject of the animal kingdom bound by this chromosomal divide possesses the ability to sense when a certain pressure, a specific poking, is in fact a male organ, as opposed to any other matter in the known universe, invading her personal space. This primal part of Nino's brain recognized this invasion, the first full on emergency of its kind in her living memory, and reacted accordingly: escape.

Nino intuitively thrust her hips back the instant she felt something poke her belly. Futaro shocked her and did the same, moving his hips away and never breaking lip lock. He continued pressing his lips against hers as if nothing had happened. Did he think she hadn't noticed? Who couldn't!? It was sticking out like a life buoy drawing all attention to itself on a dark and stormy night, screaming that without her attention, lives would be lost!

She couldn't blame Futaro, thought. Didn't those things have a mind of their own? She'd seen the occasional male victim present in front of class and pray their primal response went unnoticed, which of course it didn't. She thought it was funny. Why would evolution screw over half its population like this? Probably for the same reason it screwed over its other half with regular debilitating cramp attacks and a monthly river of blood. So this was a natural response. She wouldn't let it ruin their night.

But it was. They shifted to the living room, lips still sealed together like they were bound with superglue. But that thing in his pants was ever present, radiating like a mushroom cloud between them. And it wouldn't go away. Half her mind was focused away from the sensations of him and committed to avoiding him, and apparently he was doing the same, like he was afraid he'd scare her off if this thing got too close. Any pleasure of his lips and affection was marred by her desire keep away from that thing.

And she hated it. She hated that this thing had so much power to divide them. She wanted to kiss him without worrying about some stupid meat stick that refused to get out of the way. And unlike before, this was clearly a gap Futaro wasn't going to close himself, for fear of pushing her out of his reach. She had to make up her mind, she wanted him closer more than she wanted that thing of his to stay away. Because it was part of him, wasnt' it? Not even a part he could fully control. This was up to her to show him it was okay, even if she herself wasn't entirely sure. She knew there was only one way to settle this and to reclaim their night together.

She pulled away and breathed, "Lay down."

He took a breath himself and said, "Huh? Nino?"

"Just do it."

He got on the floor, his eyes never leaving hers, and those blue watery orbs set her on fire. No sooner had his bottom hit the floor that she climbed on top of him, settling into his lap. Futaro's eyes went wide as he realized what she was doing, too late to stop her. She pushed him down and leaned over his body, her legs straddling him like a horse on either side. Then she took a deep breath and kissed him, and then came the plunge. She lowered her hips down his body, gliding over his chest, his pelvis, and against the pressure rising from his trousers. She felt it pushing against the back of her pants, like a glacier blocking her mighty titanic. But tonight it would be the vessel to triumph over nature. She pushed it back, laying herself flat on his body, and kissed him without another care in the world. Fuck that dick for getting in her way, nothing was going to stop her from enjoying him like this.

Futaro moaned into her lips as she glided down his body, and she froze, wondering if that touch had sparked something inside him like dynamite shattering a cave. She counted the layers separating her from his…thing. Two pairs of pants, two pair of underwear and a single pad. Five layers. It felt like such a small number. What was he thinking from this contact? Did he want more? Was he going to press for more? She almost clamped up, she wasn't ready for him to push. She wasn't ready for what that would mean. It terrified her, even if she wasn't sure why. It was just a barrier too far, one she wasn't ready to cross. It would be like leaping into a freezing lake without knowing how to swim.

Her worries calmed like a magnesium flare settling into a warm flame. Futaro kissed her without restraint, his full force on her once again, and she rose to match his passion with her own. He didn't push for more, he pushed for what they had, he pushed for her lips and her touch and she readily fell into him. She wanted his lips. She wanted to feel them and to taste them and his tongue and oh, it was all so good. She watched her hair falling in a veil around their faces, trapping them in a little world she made. She probed deeper, pushing her tongue into his mouth to circle his, and her hips fell lower to press her body closer into his. That thing moved against her under mounting pressure, a pressure noticed through five layers.

And suddenly she realized where that pressure was from: he wanted her, as all men want women. But this was the first time she'd ever noticed him wanting any girl, in that way. She could make that part of him, long frozen and dormant, awake and alive. That primal part that he'd held down for so long, it wanted her. He wanted her. He saw her as a woman worth wanting and having. She could feel him, a heat pressing against the space between her legs like a hot pack penetrating the layers. And she, well, she could handle that pressure, couldn't she? It was part of him. And she loved all of him. She'd take this part of him with the rest. And while she was nowhere near ready for what it meant, or what might follow, she could handle this, and maybe, she could enjoy it herself. Just a little. Just to herself.

"Oh my god!"

Itsuki's voice was a fog horn blowing away their wonderful mood, and bringing them into a world of danger. Nino and Futaro broke apart with a small, audible pop, and looked behind them, for their lower halves were facing the door, because luck was never on their side. If it were just Itsuki, she could have survived with her dignity intact. Same if it were Yotsuba, who was also there. But there was no coming back when she saw Futaro's father and sister in tow. Her sisters looked positively abashed. His father was shaking his head in amusement, as if chastizing himself for not seeing this coming. And her sister had her phone out, wearing a smile like a kitten with a well-rubbed head as her phone made a sharp click.

Raiha said, "Wow, bro. You move fast, do you?"

Nino made a sound she'd never made in her life, a high-pitched squeak that sounded like a dying rat. She was off Futaro and on her feet so quickly that if you blinked, you'd wonder if there were missing frames. She clasped her hands in front of her and bowed, "Mister Uesugi! I, ah, this isn't what it, I mean, we didn't do anything improper!"

Mister Uesugi rubbed his chin, saying, "I'm curious what you consider improper." Nino flushed and her dignity burned away.

Raiha beamed, "Oh, this is totally going on instagram. Itsuki, what's your wifi password?"

Futaro glared death, "Raiha, you'll do no such thing."

She rolled her eyes, "Please, you don't even know what instagram is." Oh, but he did. Nino had shown him. Her profile had recently exploded with pictures of the two of them, and she'd made sure he knew. But this was one she definitely wanted to exclude. And she wondered, given the angle, would she see a bulge riding against her rear?

Yotsuba lamely held up a bag, "I brought the eggs."

Futaro asked, "And who brought them?"

Itsuki sighed, "That'd be me, not that I meant to...interrupt."

"Uh-huh. And why?"

His father raised a toolbox in response, grinning, "House call!"

_**~Futaro~**_

Itsuki, your intentions were so good. After a wonderful play date with Raiha, and yes, she called it that, she fully intended to drop Raiha off and come straight home to study. Her heart couldn't have been more pure. But Mister Uesugi was a gregarious man and invited her inside, where he told her all about what a wonderful time he'd had meeting her sister and welcoming her into their little fold. He started asking how things were at home, and Itsuki said things were being handled as well as they could be, considering the ongoing family feud. She mentioned how she'd been excited to move back into a home with working appliances. And then Mister Uesugi had grinned, for there was a problem he was certain he could solve. In that way, he wasn't so different from his son.

"Pass me the phillips, will ya son?"

"What's a phillips?

"Cross-head screwdriver."

"Uh, hold on..." Futaro rummaged through the bag, searching in vain for the screwdriver the task required.

His father flexed his hand with his head behind the washing machine, "Anytime, buddy."

"I'm looking."

Yotsuba peered inside, "Hey, everything alright?"

Futaro said, "Yeah, yeah, looking for the phillips."

"It's right here," Yotsuba said as she picked a screwdriver up off the floor, "Here you go, Mister Uesugi."

He gripped it and cheered, "Good work Yotsuba, you're a natural!"

"Thanks!" she beamed, then asked, "Do you do this a lot?"

"I learned how to make old gear keep ticking long after most people would give up. Waste of good appliances and money, I say. All it takes is a little elbow grease. You see a long flathead out there?"

Futaro muttered flathead to himself like a mantra as he scanned for it. Yotsuba picked it up from under his nose. "Here you go!"

His dad took it and said, "Futaro, you should consider having her tutor you. She's got a knack for this."

"I prefer book learning," Futaro grumbled.

Yotsuba asked, "How's it looking, Mister Uesugi? Can you fix it?"

"Already fixed the dryer, just needed to clear out the lint in the air ducts. And the washing machine has a loose panel, that's why it's been rattling every time it starts up. Should be good in a few more turns...there! Should be quiet as a, well, as a washing machine now."

"Wow, that's amazing! Hey Nino, did you hear that?" There was no response, just the sound of a busy kitchen echoing through the door.

His father emerged from behind the machine and rubbed his head, "She doesn't need to do all this cooking on our account."

Yotsuba said, "That won't stop her, she'd feel bad if she didn't do something to thank you."

"Heh, that's part'a why I like her," his father looked at him and winked, and Futaro cringed. He said, "Come on, let's see how your lady friend is doing. Yotsuba, you're coming too. I'm promoting you to first assistant!"

"Wow, first assistant! Thank you! I'll do my best!"

"It's not that great," Futaro huffed. He hefted his father's toolbox and followed the cheery pair into the kitchen, where Nino was hard at work preparing a much expanded dinner. Was it really that much harder cooking for six over four? Nino hadn't complained, in fact she'd insisted that she offer some sort of thanks for their work. But he'd seen her looking into her fridge and pondering, how could she use the ingredients she had so that everyone would be full and they'd have enough to make it to payday?

But picking a recipe was nothing compared to working with an assistant. A very unwilling assistant who wouldn't go away no matter how much she asked. And one who was less interested in cooking than in a scathing criticism.

"You should add more pepper," Raiha said.

Nino hid her sneer for the hundredth time in a vain attempt to win Raiha over, "It's chicken and eggs, it doesn't need pepper."

"Needs more pepper," Raiha insisted.

"How about you give me a minute and I'll let you taste test it? Then you'll see-"

"Big bro loves peppers," Raiha lamented and glanced away in boredom, eyeing Itsuki who was busy with self-study. He wish he could do the same.

He had to pity his girlfriend. Raiha was stubbornly hard to win over once she'd made up her mind, and all she looked for were flaws she could expose like tossing dirty laundry onto the streets. She could see Nino's patience wearing thin like a rubber band stretched to tearing. He hoped they settled down before someone snapped.

His father settled in next to the dishwasher and said, "Alright Nino, stay clear of my territory and I'll return the favor. I'll have this thing up and running in a jiffy, count on it."

Nino brightened, "Oh! Thank you, mister Uesugi!"

He chucked, "It's no problem," he said as he opened the washer door.

Raiha scoffed and said, just low enough for her father to miss, "Kiss-ass." Nino flinched, and renewed her efforts on her cooking.

"Futaro, help me out here," his father said. He had one hand on the inside of the washer and motioned to the other. Futaro got up and stood opposite, pulling on his command. But all Yotsuba's cheers, and there were many, couldn't make his muscles move this monstrous chunk of metal and mass.

"First assistant, take over!" His father called. Yotsuba tagged Futaro out and together she pulled the machine with his father. It creaked on the floor and crept out of its cave like a bear after a long hibernation. Yotsuba dusted her hands off and said, "That wasn't so bad."

Futaro wondered how many more push-ups, how many miles and gallons of sweat were required to make it look so easy.

His father knelt inside the opening and muttered, "Okay, let's see here-oh."

Futaro asked, "Dad?"

His father picked up the power cord and plugged it into the socket. The washing machine chirped and its buttons lit up with life. "Done, I think," he finished lamely.

Futaro wondered how much it would cost to hire someone to figure that out.

Yotsuba asked, "Mister Uesugi, would it've cost a lot if we hired someone to fix it, and that's all it took?"

Huh. Great minds think alike?

His father told them to pack up the tools and scrub the floor, the dishwasher left marks after they'd pushed it back inside. Futaro collected a few scattered wrenches they'd never used. By chance, something caught his eye and he looked up, noticing Nino cracking eggs to pan-fry for their meal. Of all the sides his girlfriend showcased, this was one of his favorites. Not cooking, it wasn't something so basic as that, but the act of so completely caring for those she loved.

And then there was another side, one he never paid attention to before, but suddenly drew him in like too much shampoo circling the drain. His eyes fell like a boulder from a cliff down her body. Her waist was a valley he tumbled into and beyond, climbing her hips like a slingshot, and then he lingered, the space between like a lantern drawing his eyes in the night. Nino reached for the skillet sauteing the chicken and shook it, and Futaro was...delighted? Delighted, at the subtle trembling in her form through pristine white skinny jeans. He realized how tightly they hugged her hips and her thighs and how tightly the pockets would cling to his hands if he squeezed one inside.

He suddenly realized what he was doing, he was leering at his girlfriend like a mutt to a meaty t-bone steak. What the hell was wrong with him? Had he lost so much control that a body part was distracting him? Where was the result of all that hard-won focus? He admitted he was open to change, to people and to relationships, and even to admitting he might have been a bit off the mark on the topic of love, but he wasn't ready to abandon those ideas wholesale.

So why was he still staring?

It was just a butt. A collection of fat and muscles guided by strips of DNA into a round, aesthetically pleasing shape. Nothing more. Everyone had one, only subject to minor variations in contouring and composition. Its purpose was cushioning, posture and motion, waste expulsion and a sign of fertility, the latter two being and odd combination, he mused. This one was only interesting because it belonged to the woman he loved. But it was only a butt. Now that he was conscious of it, he could push it aside and regain his control. He'd been momentarily distracted by that primal recognition, he would end it-

Nino shifted her weight from one leg to the other, her hips as rounded hills rolling like pistons expanding, compressing, as she returned to the eggs.

Futaro's higher brain went on a short, sweet vacation. An older, more primitive part of him, the man inside, was in a trance at those lovely, feminine hips, and everything they subtly promised with their curvy delights. And his body remembered the feeling of those curves grinding on him, teasing his senses. And that tiny space between her legs, the end goal of man, pressing so promisingly against his erection like a hard, heavy kiss.

Someone snickered, Futaro blinked and turned, seeing Yotsuba as a dam straining to contain a man-made lake of laughter. His father sighed, shaking his head, and put away the last of his tools. Futaro sneered and looked away. He chastised himself for being so blatant. Ten seconds and that _thing_ was all it took to undo years of effort!

Itsuki, standing in the hall, coughed and said, "You, uh, might wanna wash up. Dinner looks like it's almost ready." Futaro saw her blushing as she returned to the table. Had the whole world seen his moment of weakness?

Yotsuba turned to finish cleaning the floor, then squealed like a bat in the dark. She looked over her shoulder, realized which side of herself was facing Futaro on hands and knees, and hastily shifted direction. Futaro rolled his eyes and left to wash up first.

The rest of the night couldn't have passed quickly enough, and so it appeared an ordeal to survive. He could be happy that his father and girlfriend were getting along so well. But when all you want is for the night to end, everything precluding it seems a burden. So when the plates were cleaned and thank yous were said, he couldn't wait to rush to the door.

Yotsuba said, "Huh? What about studying?"

Futaro grumbled, "We're out of time, thanks to the housework Consider it a day off."

Nino hugged him, making him tense. She glared, "What's with you? You're acting weird."

Futaro brushed her off, "Just feeling weird, after, you know. See you tomorrow?"

She kissed him quickly after checking Raiha wasn't looking, "Yeah, see you then. Text me."

Raiha, after father ripped her away from Itsuki and Yotsuba, skipped along the road home. "That was great! We should do it again!"

"I think we might've overstayed our welcome," his father laughed.

Futaro checked his phone and saw a missed text. It was from Takeda. He was wondering when he'd be able to meet up tonight to go over the lesson plans. He texted back that he'd be there in an hour, after seeing his family home. Then he saw his father looking to him. He said to Futaro, "Hey, come here. I have something for you."

Futaro rolled his eyes, "Please hold off on the lecture, I don't need it."

"No lecture, just this," he said as he pulled a thin, square package from his wallet. Futaro didn't need to read the branding to know what it was.

He waved his hand, "Save it, that isn't happening."

"Keep it, just in case."

"What case?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Is it too late for a lecture instead?"

"Definitely, so take it. I want you prepared if something happens.

"If this is about earlier, it wasn't what it looked like."

Raiha turned and grinned, "Just take the condom, you lecherous perv."

Futaro groaned. "Did everyone see that?"

"As closely as you saw her, yeah." Raiha smiled innocently.

Futaro sighed as he took the proffered protection. He stuffed it into the deepest depths of his wallet next to all of the change he could never seem to get rid of. So it would stay, never to be used. So he told himself.

And then he wondered, what was his dad doing with this thing in his wallet in the first place?

_**~Nino~**_

"He did what!?" Nino screamed.

Yotsuba cupped one hand and held it to her eye, "I told you! Like a microscope! Zoooooooooooooom!"

Itsuki leaned against the wall, watching Yotsuba's display and said, "Yup, that about covers it."

"Zoooooooooom! Zooooooooooom! Zooooooooooom into that ass!" Yotsuba laughed, twirling in a circle, "His eyes were on your butt like stretchy underwear. He was under a spell."

Nino shook her head, blushing and holding her legs to her chest, "Nuh-uh, no way he, like, I would've noticed!"

Itsuki said, "I'm surprised you didn't, he was hardly subtle. I think his brain broke." Then she laughed, " Your ass broke his brain!"

Yotsuba said, "And his jaw, it fell like a curtain call, like this!" she demonstrated, looking like a dead fish.

Nino couldn't resist a chuckle, "Seriously? Like that?"

Yotsuba checked her expression in a mirror, and nodded, "Yup, like this."

Itsuki grinned, "It looked like he was hypnotized."

"By your ass!" Yotsuba laughed.

Nino covered her face in embarrassment. She could feel the heat on her cheeks like sparklers glittering in the night, like furnaces in a cabin in the woods. She'd been ogled before, all she had to do was walk down the street if she wanted someone eyeing her like a ham at a holiday feast. It was violating and made her feel like bundling inside a cocoon. But the thought of Futaro doing the same, staring at her like, well, a piece of attractive meat, it was disturbing, and maybe...intriguing? Sometimes it takes the right face to make an activity go from disgusting and humiliating to desirable. And this was Futaro, an automaton just learning to be human, the man with all the sexual energy of a dead battery. Only today, she proved he still had some juice stored away. It was her he couldn't take his eyes off of, it was her body that put him in a trance without even trying. And it was her that got him hard. He didn't do that for any other girl, not from school, or even her identical sisters. She did this to him, because he saw her as someone special. A real woman, in every way. She remembered feeling the proof grinding against her as she slid against his body, a bulge pressing against the seat of her pants. Five layers. She pressed her thighs together, feeling a heat that felt familiar. And then she realized it hadn't been from him, this heat, whatever it was, was from her. She had a fire of her own.

She whipped out her phone and started texting. Itsuki asked, "Futaro?"

"Yup!" She said merrily as she sent the message.

_Like what you saw?_

Itsuki laughed, "I wonder what he'll say."

She only had to wait a few seconds before he answered, but not to her. Yotsuba checked her buzzing phone, frowning. "Uh-oh. He thinks I tattled."

"You did," Nino pointed out.

"He wants to know if you're mad."

Nino nodded, then sent another message,

_I better not catch you checking anyone else. Got it?_

Moments later he replied, _Sorry._

_No problem, perv ;P_

She paused, remembering that warmth she'd felt inside her, a little hunger of her own. She texted again, _But you're my perv. Remember that._

Yes, mine, she thought. And just like on the floor, she accepted him for what he was. A man. Just a man, with all the bells and whistles that came with that Y chromosome. And so long as it stayed that way, as long as it was all focused on her, she could accept that.

Nino slumped against the wall and thought about how far they'd come, from squabbling tutor and unwilling student to near-groping on the floor. She wanted to talk with him, she wanted to ask him what he thought of feeling her so close, pressed together by their weight. What did he feel when she pressed that space inside the seat of her pants against him? She wanted to know, but knew she was too embarrassed to ask. Maybe someday. Was this the way things proceeded? Baby steps into desire? This was what couples did together, it was what men and women had done since before evolution brought them up on two feet. She used to daydream about dating, romance and weddings, all those girly things. She never daydreamed about a guy poking her with his erection. She never thought about penis at all. They were just an attachment in the package, and a weird, unwelcome one at that. But tonight she encountered it suddenly, like an animal in the wild, and found it wasn't so terrifying after all. Not with him, not after she got used to it. In the heat of the moment, at least from what she could recall, it was all shrouded in haze and heat, she hadn't hated it. She'd wanted it to continue. Not further, just continue as they were. Pressed against each other. Her body on his. Feeling his want, and this strange heat that felt like a steam engine. She wasn't sure if she could dive right into it again. But if it happened again, if this night repeated itself, if they weren't interrupted, maybe she'd find what she forgot in the heat of the moment, she though. And maybe more. Someday.

For now she could settle herself with the most important lesson of the night: the knowledge that Futaro Uesugi was a genius, a savant, and definitely an ass man.

**A/N**

I warned last chapter that the rating would increase. This is why. It isn't much, all things considered. A little light grinding and discovery, nothing overly sexual. But this story centers around a couple, and sex is so closely tied with romantic coupling that it would be a disservice to not include it. I'm still torn about whether there will be full blown sex scenes in the future, for one this site does not allow that to be published and I'd risk a take down, and secondly I'd only do it in service of character, not to write sex for titillation sake. So there will be more touching, grinding, maybe more. They're two teenagers fumbling towards ecstasy.

The story as we know it is coming to an end. Not this one, this story has a long way to go yet. But the canon that we've all shared will be finalized soon enough. I wonder how it will conclude, we knew it would end with a wedding and a so-called happily ever after. But I find myself becoming more and more curious about the four endings we haven't talked about: the four sisters. I'm sure there will be an ending for everyone, after all we've seen them grow as people and will see them divide along the road of life. Those, unlike the bride and groom, are largely unknowns, and I hope they get the attention they deserve.

For anyone who hasn't caught up with the manga, I'm going to speak with who will (most likely) be the bride based on what we know now, so stop reading if you don't want to be spoiled. From a storytelling perspective, it makes sense for Yotsuba to be the bride at this point. Her personal development is largely incomplete at this point, whereas most of the other sisters have had full character arcs that don't necessitate having Futaro fall in love with them. This was a natural conclusion to Yotsuba's arc, and Futaro's as well, and while not everyone can be satisfied with it, it makes sense from a pure storytelling perspective.

There's one more thing I wish to address in regards to this story's canon: the birth father, the bald bearded man. His inclusion in the canon struck me as a ham-fisted play to create conflict for Itsuki, it's literally his only reason for appearing, and disappearing as quickly as he appeared. He's deus ex machina personified. And he has no place in this story. I repeat: in this story, he is not the quintuplets' father. He does not exist. He is a poorly crafted character and has no place in this story.

Thank you everyone for your support, and for bothering to read to the end just to see what I have to say. Two weeks until the next update, and let's carry this story on past the canon's conclusion. Please continue to comment and review, and I'll write again soon.

Chapter published: January 9th, 2020.


	22. Wardrobe Malfunction

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 22**

**Wardrobe Malfunction**

_**~Ichika~**_

_Nakano OMG u see this!?_

Who's this?

_Mitsuki! From class, remember?_

Right, my bad. Didnt save ur #

_All good!_

_So did u see it?_

See what?

_The pic!_

What pic?

_Hold on, I'll send it __2 __u_

_See? It's on her insta!_

_Some view huh?_

Fuck

Sorry.

Wow.

_All good._

_Oh god, this doesn't leave anything to the imagination._

_I know, right? Like, get a room!_

_Or they did! Ha!_

Who posted this?

_Dunno, some little girl. I'll send you the link._

It's his sister

_Wow, he has a sister?_

Yes

_Thats so weird. I expected him to be a robot or something. Her pics are so cute too._

_Weird, huh?_

It fits him

_Part of me wishes I never saw it. I mean you can see everything. Including his. Ew!_

_Not that she seems to mind! She's basically riding him after all!_

Well, she wouldn't. She that type of girl.

_Really? Does she do this around you?_

Kind of. It's not the first time, I'm sure.

There was this one time

Sorry, you don't wanna hear it.

_No! Go on, I gotta hear this it sounds juicy!_

Well, this happened last year and it might be nothing, but, well I don't think so.

One night he came over after studying and snuck into her room. I only saw them come out for a minute, then they went back inside. They were in there for quite a while.

_OMG!_

I hadnt thought anything of it, but then i just remembered, all she was wearing was a really long sleep shirt.

I don't remember if she was wearing anything underneath.

_Oh_

_My_

_God!_

_They totally __did it__!_

It was just the once, but, well...who knows?

_I bet they do it every time they sneak off under the stairs! Like yesterday, remember?_

_I bet they can't get their hands off each other when no one's looking._

Well, maybe.

Maybe.

_Hold on, I gotta tell Emi about this!_

_Ritsuko too!_

_I'm sending a group text! I'll add you!_

_**~Nino~**_

"No!"

If her reflexes were as sharp as her wit, she could have caught them. Instead they slipped through her fingers like tear drops into the sink. She reached for them blindly, snagging one as it bounced against clean porcelain, but the other tumbled out of her grasp, end over end like a gymnast eager for the gold, settling into a clean roll as it circled the drain. She blocked it with her other hand, capturing it before it spiraled into the murky depths.

She looked at the tiny flecks of glass and muttered, "Shit." She hoped they weren't scratched, or at least not any more than they already were. She gently ran the water and held the lenses under the tap, she was out of solution, after all, and she had to make do.

"Nino," Itsuki said as she opened the door. She saw her holding her contacts and frowned, "Don't tell me you're still using those."

"It's fine, I just need to clean them-"

"Is this why you couldn't stop rubbing your eyes yesterday?"

"I'll be fine, I just had them in too long."

"Today's a long day too. You promised you'd get rid of them when they started hurting."

"Yeah, well I don't want to anymore."

"Why?"

"Just because, okay? Get off my back!"

"Why, Nino?"

Nino swallowed and said, "Because I don't have anymore. These are my last pair."

She hoped Itsuki would go easy on her, now that her secret was out. It might sound as simple as ordering replacements, and anywhere else it would be. But she didn't have her prescription. Papa did. Along with everything else. She might be able to fetch them herself, but again, it wasn't as easy as it appeared. Imagine, the daughter of the Director waltzing into one of the busiest hospitals in Tokyo. It only took one brown-nosing admin chair-heater to let slip up the ladder, saying sir, your daughter stopped by, wouldn't it be just grand to see her? But it was all moot because even if she had her prescription, and it was bad, she knew, she couldn't afford new lenses. Not even the cheap ones.

If only she'd known how long they'd be away, she'd have taken her entire stock. But as they signed the lease and began moving suitcase after suitcase over to their first independent home, they realized there was only so much room to share. So she made sacrifices. Everyone chipped in to trim the fat. Instead of five blow dryers, they had one. Instead of five beauty kits, they had one, hers. And instead of five medicine cabinets, they had one. And so they returned to their childhood and re-learned to share, a lesson their teenage years had dulled considerably. Among her essentials, she brought enough lenses for a three month stretch, if she followed the replacement instructions to the letter. Back then, it sounded like an unimaginably long time. But time began to fly, as it does, and as she tossed the remnants of that first pack in the rubbish, she realized she had to make what she had last. So she wore them a bit longer than the packaging advised, imagining her papa's frown each time she extended the lens' service lives. It was a noble effort at independence.

And now it was done. Her last pair rested in her hand, too scratched to continue service and doomed for the dump.

Itsuki cupped her hand and said, "I get it, but you'll only hurt yourself if you keep wearing these."

"But I need them," Nino whined.

"No, you don't."

"Yes I do! You know I'm blind without them, my eyes are like permanent walls of fog. Like, I couldn't tell Futaro from Miku without them, remember how that went? I'll make an idiot of myself if I don't."

Itsuki said, "Yeah, well, I might have planned for that."

Nino knew what she meant. You couldn't hide anything in this tiny home. Not even a moment of privacy with her boyfriend. Itsuki opened the medicine cabinet and took out a small, oval case of faux leather as black as a cloudy night. Nino had noticed them there months ago. She remembered sneering and calling her youngest a worry-wart, why would she waste valuable room on those antiquated things? Well now she wasn't laughing. At least Itsuki had the good grace to stay somber, for her sake.

"Here, use these."

Nino shook her head, "No."

"Nino."

"I don't want them."

"You're being childish."

"It's my choice," she breathed, "I don't want them."

Itsuki fumed, her temper rising at Nino's stubbornness, "So what're you gonna do? Wear them until they scratch your eyes blind? You think Futaro wants that? You think we do?"

"I always hated them," Nino said.

"I know, but you're out of options," she said too kindly. Nino wished she would scream at her. It would give her something to fight.

But Nino knew she was right. Wasn't she always? But she wanted to fight, and shout, and scream no! Anything to reject those frames. She could get rid of the braces and the retainer and the head gear, but not these, not completely. She dreamed of her father allowing her the surgery to fix her eyes to make her perfect, but he wouldn't allow it. She didn't need it, he claimed, and she was far too young for that sort of thing. She persisted, it wasn't like she wanted a boob job or lip injections or liposuction, all she wanted was better eyes. Just so she could fit in. He was unmoving, and so her vision remained inferior. Worse, it was different. Sure, Ichika and Itsuki used glasses for studies, but they didn't need them. She did. Just like the braces and the head gear. Why couldn't he see how much this mattered to her?

And so she was stuck with those things. She didn't even want them. Her father made her keep a pair for emergencies. In case there were a time when contact lenses were inappropriate, he explained. Or, if there was no other option. And Itsuki was right. There wasn't.

She took the case and peeled it open like a treasure chest. There they were, the one accessory she'd found no joy in choosing. They were half frames with round lenses, like two baby hands holding a pair of crystals. She chose them because she wanted as little metal as possible. It was the smallest pair she could find. And they still looked monstrous. She unfolded the hooks and slid them onto her face, gently touching them down on the bridge of her nose. She knew they'd scar her makeup over the day.

Itsuki tried grinning, "See? Not so bad."

She said nothing, because it was. The weight pinching her temple in a vice was a white flag of defeat, and for a moment she wished she was back home in her private bedroom with everything she needed to feel normal. She didn't look at herself in the mirror, she didn't want to recognize her old self. The one that was always broken somehow, like a crushed grape on a vine of healthy siblings.

She wanted to forget they were there, except their smallness worked against her and the frames remained within her vision like narrow tunnels of light trapping her inside. She tried to forget them as she cooked breakfast for her family, settling into her role should help her forget. But the glasses fogged from the steam until it was as if she weren't wearing them at all. And then Yotsuba came home.

"I'm back! Me and Futaro ran a-whoa! Nino, I like your glasses! I forgot how cute you look with them!" It bit into her like an icicle falling in a frozen cave, and she knew it wouldn't get better from here.

But a part of her hoped it would, like a bad haircut going unnoticed, or rushed makeup unmentioned. As she walked to school with what was left of her family she hoped everyone would pay her the compliment of inconspicuousness. If she could be a wallflower for a day and settle into her new reality without comment, maybe things would be okay.

But they looked. Everyone looked. They looked at her like an alien posing as a schoolgirl wearing a painted paper bag as disguise. Worse, friends would gesture to friends to look at her, and then they whispered, and giggled. Her glasses were magnets for attention of the worst kind. They looked and looked, how they looked at her like a spectacle on tour with the circus. She finally ripped off her second set of eyes and determined to make it through the day as if nothing were abnormal. Then she ran into a door and heard them laughing at her. She slid them back on and trudged into class as Yotsuba rubbed her beaten nose. All the ministrations did little for her wounded pride.

It struck her, what was Futaro going to think? How was she only just thinking about this? Of course it hit her the second her foot traversed the threshold into the classroom and there he was, so no time to prepare! Stupid, she chided herself. She thought to check her pocket mirror one last time, but too late, he looked up. She steeled herself, even managing a gulp.

But the confrontation was as blasé as could be. He waved hello, she waved back, and he returned to his studies. Was that it? No reaction whatsoever? That wasn't so bad, maybe he didn't mind.

But then she wondered, was no reaction worse? Did he dislike her look so much that he wouldn't even mention it? Sure, he was normally focused before the start of class, and nothing short of an avalanche in a prairie could steal his attention unless the teacher demanded it, but still, he should say something, right? Did he not like them? Did he think they made her look weird, too?

That thought was a parasite burrowing into her skull and feeding on brainpower for the rest of the day. It sapped her attention from her teacher's pedantry like a black hole stealing the light from the universe. And even though she tried to ignore it and focus, her classmates wouldn't let her. She noticed them looking at her with eyes dancing with delight, like they were watching a hamster try to swim. Amusement. Was that what she was now? And thanks to these stupid glasses, she could see every look and smirk and giggle in perfect clarity.

Her sisters tried to maintain that sense of normalcy, but they knew this was a touchy subject as sensitive as a sore pulsing on the tip of the tongue. And Futaro was worse, he acted indifferent as if nothing was wrong. When she didn't come to him during the break, he came to her, which would have been a heart-skipping change on any other day, but he talked about afternoon studies. Of all the things, it had to be afternoon studies. When was he going to say something about her glasses? First period? Nope. Second period? Fail again. And she realized that he really didn't get it, he didn't get her or her feelings even if it was obvious to the rest of the freaking world! The insensitive jerk!

When the lunch bell rang, she gave Futaro and her sisters their lunches, hers as well, snf excused herself to the bathroom for a moment alone after promising to meet them in the cafeteria. After using the toilet and ignoring a snickering pair of girls, and as she washed her hands, she finally looked up to see herself in the mirror, the first time since class. The little four-eyed girl from all those years ago hadn't changed much, not in her eyes. Her glasses had slipped and smudged the makeup on her nose, leaving ugly marks like deep dimples.

Ugly. There was the word for her. These things, this life, it made her ugly. She held back tears and stepped out of the room.

_**~Futaro~**_

If man was body and mind in one, it didn't take the latter long to decide which half was the ball and chain weighing the other down. The human mind was a marvel, the grandest yet seen in this vast, great universe. It was a pinnacle of natural achievement, and everything artificial only followed from its enviable faculty.

And then there was the body. The less said about that, the better.

On second thought, no. It deserved the ridicule and he was livid. The human form was practically...adequate. It got the job done. Bipedal movement, not bad. Decent eyes, nose, ears, they sufficed. And thumbs! Oh he could say a thing or two about thumbs! There was the pinnacle of physiological evolution right there! Without them, the wonders of the mind wouldn't have a perch! But the rest, well, it worked, until it broke. But otherwise what was the human body the apex of? Mankind won a single gold medal in the animal kingdom Olympics, and that was long distance running. Everything else, from sprinting, lifespan, swimming, and general survivability were all claimed by their primitive brethren. Man's physical prowess was dwarfed by the wild. Only in the mind was man supreme, and so they would remain.

So why shouldn't he put all his efforts into strengthening his mind? When you told the mind to grow, it grew, even without effort! Humans were always learning! The mind was endlessly growing and strengthening itself as a shark tirelessly swimming in the endless oceans. The body was a big, dumb jock! Really, with years of evolution the body was still a lazy sloth. You gave it resources to build monuments, it built fat. You agonize to train your muscles for years, and at the first reprieve the body slumps like melting ice cream. Unless you went out of your way to hold its primitive hand and shape it into granite against its will, it stuffed itself to bursting like a hoarder in a tiny home.

So then why was he still doing this? Why was he torturing himself with early hours and miles of unnecessary stress? He could stop anytime, he told himself. Yotsuba would understand. But he didn't. Why didn't he? Was it because research showed that the mind and body were unfortunately more closely linked than he cared to admit, and strengthening one would cause a noticeable bump in the other? Was it because he was tired of feeling beaten by bully hills and hateful stairs? Or was it because he remembered holding her hand on that rooftop, feeling her press into his chest like they were caught in a magnetic field, or feeling her lips crashing into his like balloons threatening to burst?

...He needed to stop thinking about that, his heart was beating fast enough as it was.

"All right, good effort!" Yotsuba cheered as she fanned him with her towel. He was lying face down in the grass and hoping he'd beaten the morning dogs in search of a toilet.

"Tell me we're done."

"We're done."

"Oh thank goodness!"

"Come on, up."

"Huh?"

"Up! We have another ten blocks to go!"

"But you said we're done!"

"You asked me to, I didn't wanna say no. Did it make you feel better?"

"For all of two seconds."

"Better than nothing!"

"Admit it, this is payback for studying."

She frowned, squatting next to him with her face in her hands, "Why do you say that every time we work out?"

"It's the only hypothesis that fits the evidence."

"No no no no no no no! We're out of class, smart guy. No sciency stuff! Now run!"

Ten blocks and what must be countless vials of sweat later, they stopped. Yotsuba stretched until her back popped like bubble gum. "Now we're done!"

"You mean it this time?"

She handed him some water which he gratefully gulped down like rain in the Gobi. No sooner had the plastic left his lip than Yotsuba yanked him to his feet and forced him into a cooldown. Futaro wondered, not for the first time, where she learned to lead like a dictator. But then he wondered, this for the first time, if it was from him. Maybe he was too good a teacher after all.

Yotsuba spread her legs into the splits, collapsing like a house of cards almost to the bed of grass. Futaro did his best to mirror her stretch, only for his legs to once again lock up at the halfway point so far from the earth. He blamed the body for not naturally developing a looseness. If flexibility was so important, was it too much to ask for a little more built-in wiggle room?

How did she become so flexible anyways? Sure, girls were naturally more flexible than boys, but this was apples to oranges. And she looked like she could go further, like if the earth weren't in her way she'd clap her feet over her head. Was this part of her hard work, or was this natural talent? Were her sisters this flexible too?

Was Nino?

He could follow that, so much was determined by genetics. Wait, that's right, she'd mentioned she practiced yoga in the morning, she might be even better. The fog inside his mind dispersed and he could almost see her, legs spread like an eagle proudly showcasing its span and her-

Okay, he knew where that was leading him. Not now, definitely not now in front of her carbon copy. He could control those thoughts. Except he stayed there, on Nino, where he'd been hoping to avoid for just a bit longer.

He checked his phone. No texts. It wouldn't have bothered him a month ago, that was normal. But not now. Ever since she changed her profile to 'in a relationship', and only that, until she bullied him into making a profile of his own to show off, half of their conversations had been text, most of them hers. She'd even send an emoji whenever he'd gone too long without texting her, and it was never the same one. He was surprised he couldn't feel calluses on her fingertips as much as she texted.

Nothing today, though. And nothing yesterday, either. Not even her usual goodnight. It reminded him of when she'd cut him off after their fight in the streets. And it wasn't limited to the virtual, whatever this was started yesterday at school, or at least that's where he first noticed. He hadn't spotted it right away, but he'd probably heard fewer words out of her mouth in the past day than ever before, and that was counting his time as her sworn nemesis. Breaks, lunch, studies, even work her silence persisted. The boss took one look at her and gave her kitchen duty for the entire shift. If he knew staying silent would get him out of customer duty, he'd have started ages ago. The boss had given him this look, accusing, as if this were somehow his fault.

Not that he could recall doing anything really bad. Except, well, maybe he'd been caught with his eyes trailed a bit south of the border. But she'd texted him it was okay, right?. He had proof of vindication saved to his inbox! Unless...was she worried that wasn't the first time? Could she think that he was ogling her like a tourist under Amsterdam's red lights whenever she wasn't looking? No, it was too subtle, Nino would tell him straight if she was pissed. Wouldn't she? Didn't she always? Because whatever this was, she certainly wasn't telling him now.

Was that it, then? Was this really his fault? He wanted to know, and he wanted to know before he saw her again. He glanced at Yotsuba, who was stretched on the grass like a log, slowly pushing herself up like a flower blooming under the sun. She would tell him, he thought. She was his insider, the one who set the record straight.

"Hey, Yotsuba?"

"Huh?"

"What's up with Nino? Is she still upset?"

Yotsuba chewed on her answer, "Yeah, I thought she'd be better after the first day, but, ah, she might actually be worse. When we woke up she was already awake, just staring at the ceiling."

Futaro sighed, "I see. She knows I didn't mean to, right?"

"What?"

"It was only an accident, why is she taking it so seriously? It was one look."

Yotsuba twitched like a bunny checking the shrubs for movement. Her big, innocent eyes blinked in slow motion like wipers clearing a windshield.

She said, "You think she's mad at you for, that?"

Futaro paused, "Isn't she?"

Futaro wasn't sure how he wound up on his back, just that when he did, Yotsuba was somehow on top of him, screaming like a kettle ready to be taken off the stove.

"What's wrong with you!? Why would you even think that!?"

Futaro wondered if she would stop shaking him so he could answer. When she didn't, he pushed out, "But wasn't she-"

Yotsuba continued, not caring what his actual answer was, "This isn't about you you big, big dummyhead! How can you be so insensitive!? You're her boyfriend and you never even noticed-!"

"I did-!"

"-do you have any idea how mean that is? No wonder she's so mopey, she thinks you don't even care!"

"Care about what? How about you just tell me what I'm supposed to care about first!?"

"Her glasses, dumb dumb! She has to wear glasses now and she hates it!"

Futaro froze, "That's it?"

Yotsuba didn't say anything, just stared at him dead in the eye for a moment that slowed down time. It did more to drill the point into him than anything she could've said, though he still couldn't believe all this was because of a pair of glasses.

Yotsuba stood, standing over him as she said, "Yeah, that's it. Now you're supposed to do something about it, got it?"

"Like what?"

Yotsuba rolled her eyes, she actually rolled her eyes at him, he was surprised she was even capable of it. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"Would it hurt?"

She looked defeated as she said, "Talk to her, about her glasses. Seriously, it's that simple." Then she realized it wasn't, "I mean, be nice and...I shouldn't have to explain this!"

"Excuse me, is there a problem here?" A kindly old man asked them. They turned and suddenly realized that he, along with half a dozen other early birds were watching their display as today's opening festivities. Futaro rolled his eyes and got up while Yotsuba went white as raw onion and waved the man away.

She covered her cheeks and said to Futaro, "Look, just...do the, the...the thing, with her, okay? I mean it." She hurried away from the scene before Futaro could respond, not that he was sure how.

Glasses. All this fuss over a pair of corrective lenses. Why was this something to make a big deal of? He hadn't even been surprised when she came to class wearing her pair. He knew she wore contacts, it was hardly a logical leap to assume she had a spare pair of glasses in case of emergency, and she'd probably wear them someday. It wasn't even worth a shrug, just a minor mental footnote. So why was she treating this like a death in the family? Worse, why were others taking her seriously?

Like all matters Nino, this was hard to drop and he chewed it all the way home, bringing it into the shower and stuffing it under his school uniform. He sat down for breakfast with his sister.

"Where's dad?"

"Double shift, he left early."

He shrugged and sat down to a household delicacy of fried eggs over rice topped with hot sauce and sausage on the side.

"So how's breakfast?"

"Hmm, good," Futaro said as he ringed through flash cards. He'd never found the little ring he lost in the concert hall, not that he really tried. A part of him wish he'd had enough control to pocket the thing before going wild so he wouldn't have to carefully keep track of these.

"Carbs, protein and lipids all in one, everything the body needs."

"Mmhmm."

"Nothing like your sister's home cooking, is there?"

"Not that I've tasted." It's not like he had another sister to compare it to.

That little fallacy didn't spoil her mood as she hummed a merry morning tune that failed to thaw Futaro's icy mood. After breakfast, he checked over her homework as she scrubbed the dishes. She'd chide him on doing her teacher's work for her, and frowned when he took it as a compliment. It was literally elementary for Futaro, nice simple word problems and equations with definite answers. So much easier than the obtuse world he stepped further into each day. It was a moment to take his mind away from confusion of the morning, but it was fleeting as the clocked ticked towards the top of the hour.

He helped Raiha with her bag before preparing his own and was ready to meet the day, at least physically. He still wondered what exactly he was supposed to say when he saw her. Yotsuba seemed to think it was obvious, he wished he'd had a few more seconds to pick her brain.

"Here!"

Raiha nearly tackled him as she shoved the small box into his chest, like a relay runner catching her relief off-guard. Raiha took his hand and placed a small box wrapped in an old handkerchief. "Surprise!" she cheered.

"Where did you get a bento box?"

"In storage, way, way in the back."

"Uh-huh. And, why? You know Nino makes-"

"It's your favorite! Spicy curry noodles, with extra pepper and a packet of hot sauce! Come on take it take it take it!"

"Okay, calm down." He sighed as he took it. Raiha beamed and bolted out the door with a wave goodbye before he could say another word.

The why escaped him with his sister. He pondered the oddly weighty container as he beat a familiar path to school. He tried remembering the last time his sister made him a bento and couldn't think of one after he started high school. He'd used his first day at school to find the most frugally sound method of eating. Every menu had its secrets, sometimes even a combo that dipped into a restaurant's red. Once he found it, there was no reason to change. It was cheap, filling and saved his sister twenty minutes a day to study, in theory anyways.

So where had this brain child come from? Raiha had enough going on already without adding this to her plate. Why would she bother, she knew Nino started making him lunch for school. All this did was waste good food, unless she suspected him a closet glutton. What was she…

Somewhere in Futaro's brain, a billion neurons spoke with another billion neurons and compared notes, then another billion neurons butted in on their conversation and insisted that both sets of billion neurons had it all wrong! It got so noisy that the billion most important neurons had to intervene and hold an inquiry into the matter. It took them a full half second to build the final picture, practically a full work day when working at the speed of light. And thus Futaro realized that Raiha not only didn't like Nino, she was jealous.

It was so absurd that Futaro bit back a horde of laughter like a dam in heavy rain. His sister was jealous! Of what? Nino? What subset in the laws of physics allowed her to be jealous of Nino? A sister and a girlfriend were like a butterfly and a pomegranate, there was nothing to compare! He could see no root, no cause for jealousy, however petty it may be.

And yet, that was it. He could see it, even if he couldn't understand it. And he suspected, no, he knew the next time he caught Raiha looking at Nino without her knowing, he'd see it in her eyes, like the bottom of a muddy well. He could never picture Raiha like this before, not once. Something had changed for Raiha that he couldn't recognize. It was so small that he hadn't even noticed it when it was happening right under his nose. He's been absorbed in the ongoing changes so great they could only be called a metamorphosis that the rest of the world passed like life around a tunnel. He came out the other side and his world had changed. The pieces were all still there, but scattered and scarred like a child's playroom after a tantrum. Like little ripples in the water that grew into waves, his life that seemed finally ready to settle was left deformed by the tsunami. And now that he finally stopped to look at the field as a whole, he saw the shifting he'd so blissfully ignored.

He'd thought that given time, things could fall back to normal, as if all this was the shaking of a snow globe and they were tiny flecks of frost falling back into place. It seemed inevitable that sisters would forgive and forget and move on. But even his own family was different. The paradigm itself had changed, and now he feared, with so many words turned to memory, there was no going back to how they were. Maybe they could heal and forgive, but they would never be like they were before. And the sadness inside him swelled as he realized those study halls with everyone present with nothing more worrisome than an exam may be gone forever.

All this had happened without him noticing. There was a deep, welling frustration in his chest as he thought how all his studies and hard work had still not helped him see this sooner. But even if they had, would things be any different? How much of this was really in his own control?

Well, one thing. Maybe. Probably the most important one of them all. He still had no idea what he would do when he saw her, but Yotsuba seemed to believe in him. He trusted her instincts much better than his own.

It wasn't long before he saw the trio approaching at a distance. Something was immediately off. Nino always knew where she was headed, and she made that abundantly clear by blazing ahead at the front. So seeing her nestled behind her chattering sisters like a pony on a leash, her eyes on concrete, was a definite change.

Futaro waved, "Hey, you two go on ahead, we'll catch up at school."

Yotsuba and Itsuki glanced at each other, then at Nino. If they were looking to her for direction, she had none to give. Futaro was about to press, when Yotsuba gave a ringing cheer, "Right! I almost forgot I have to, er, polish the books before class! Itsuki can help me! Let's go!"

Woe be with the girl if she ever stumbled onto a poker table. He should host an after study-study hour on subterfuge just to give the poor thing a chance. She snatched a startled Itsuki's hand and set off for school like a runner at the end of her marathon.

He wondered when instincts were supposed to take over. They never had trouble when it was something physical. Why did they get cold feet with language? She looked at him through shining lenses and silently asked what he had to say. If only he knew himself. Yotsuba told him it was obvious. A little hint would have been appreciated. He tried to find the right words to start, but she beat him to it.

"What's that?"

"Huh?" Futaro followed her eyes, they were glaring down to his hand and the offending cloth in his grip. He lifted it up, "Oh, this?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"A bento my sister made."

"Oh."

Her gaze sharpened as if swept over a whetstone. She eyed the bento as if it personally insulted her. She held a pair of lunches in front of her, and though her stance was firm, she shrank before him like a balloon falling out of the sky. And as he followed her gaze he wondered, did she know what Raiha thought of her?

He lifted it to his eye, shrugging, "She hasn't made me a lunch in years, I wonder what got into her. I told her I had yours, but, she insisted. I couldn't get out the door until I took it with me."

"I see." She was hard like a taught rubber band. Futaro walked closer, past the zone of just friends, and looked at her. She didn't look up. He could see her makeup smudging on her nose where her glasses slid down. She grumbled, "What?"

He said, "I thought you'd have glasses somewhere. It only makes sense you'd have a pair to go with your contacts. Everyone should be prepared in case something happens."

She blinked, mulling his words with all the expression of a supercomputer, then muttered, "That's great." Then she moved past him like a river around rock.

Futaro turned and asked, "Hey, where are you going?"

"What's it look like?" she said without stopping.

Futaro growled and jogged next to her, grabbing at her hand, then her wrist when she didn't offer it. "Hey, will you just wait a second?"

"We're gonna be late-"

"I know-!"

"So come on!" She pulled away and stormed off. Futaro followed, but wondered what good it would do. She seemed shut off like a great gate to a beggar. Wasn't he playing the part of a good boyfriend? Wasn't he supposed to comfort her? Well how was he supposed to do that when she shut him off? Maybe, just maybe, if she'd actually talk with him and tell him what's wrong instead of having him play this unwinnable guessing game, they'd get somewhere! He wanted to scream what the hell her problem was, for what little good that might do. She wasn't even slowing down to let him catch up. A part of him, the one his peers called the robot, was tempted to let her keep walking. Let her decide when she was ready to talk again!

He was trying to understand her frustration, he really was. But it was just a pair of glasses! The world continued to turn and the sun shined as brightly as ever and it was just a pair of glasses! Get over it! And he wanted to scream his logic into her ear until she understood and stopped behaving like an irrational buffoon. But he didn't. Because in all his frustration, he could remember Nino telling him about a little girl who hid her metal smile to match her sisters. She was the girl who always needed something fixed just to keep up with her family. Now she had to wake up every day and put on a reminder that no, she wasn't like her sisters. Her very body felt to her as a second-hand doll.

All because of a pair of glasses. Was that really all? Futaro still couldn't see the whole picture, but an outline through the mist.

Futaro reached out again and took her wrist. "Wait. Hold on."

Nino twisted, frowning, "Stop grabbing me, it's annoying!"

It didn't sting this time, he didn't blame words coming in fear. "I wanted to say, you look good with them."

"What?"

"In your glasses. They look," what was the word she liked being called? He decided, "pretty. They really frame your face."

Nino narrowed her eyes, "Right. Where'd that come from. Was it Yotsuba? Did she tell you to say that?"

"Something like that," he admitted.

"That's sad. Whatever, I don't need pity." She pulled against his wrist, he kept his hold.

"That doesn't mean I don't think it's true. Just wait, let me say something." Futaro remembered how she looked at him yesterday, eyeing him with a silent question. "I always think you look pretty, and glasses didn't change that. So when I saw you, I didn't think to say anything. I still thought you were pretty," he paused, "Still do, too."

Nino took her arm back and rubbed her wrist, and Futaro wondered if he'd hurt her. "You don't need to lie to me."

"I'm not lying," he insisted, his voice calm against frustration.

She her arms and looked away. Futaro waited several short breaths, then she tilted her head and said, "I hate them."

"I know."

"I look like a bug. They keep falling down and I can just see them, all the time! And I can hear people in our class pointing to me and laughing and making fun of me-!"

"They're not doing that."

"Yes they are! I can hear them! I know they're saying things about me behind my back! And all because of these..." She took her glasses off and looked at them longingly. Futaro thought she might drop them and grind them beneath her heel. Instead he took them from her and examined them.

"They look nice. I bet you chose these yourself, didn't you?" Then he slid them onto her surprised face, carefully avoiding her ears. "I really don't see anything wrong. I think you look good. Or, pretty." His fingers slid down the temples, falling around her ears and around her cheeks. "You believe me?"

She sighed, looking at the sky, anywhere but at him. "I guess."

It felt strange having to draw her words out like a fishing net out of the sea. Were all girls this stubborn, or just Nino? He said, "I should've told you yesterday."

"You should have," she paused, then said, "So say sorry."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Fine. I'm sorry."

Futaro gagged when she threw herself at his chest. He put his arms around her, hopeful of what this meant. He asked, "So, we're okay?" Her answer was a nod against his chest. He checked the area to make sure they were alone, then leaned in to kiss her forehead. "Can we go?"

Nodding, she said, "Let's go." She let him take her hand, it felt like a checkered flag. She wouldn't speak for a time, as if she'd taken a short vow of silence. Her hand was hot in his own as if he were holding a dying coal. Futaro found himself filling the silence with his morning vignette, describing his sister's surprise lunch while assuring her he still wanted to have hers as well. It was a role reversal he never expected to happen. What force in the universe could remove Nino's voice? Herself, of course. But he kept her hand firmly in his, reminding her that he was here, and didn't want to leave. He wasn't her mother harboring secret thoughts. He wasn't a sister pitying the black sheep of the tribe. He wasn't a faceless other whispering gossip against her ear. She knew what he was, he just needed to remind her.

Right before turning the corner leading to the gate, she spoke at last, asking, "Why do they keep sliding?"

"Your glasses?"

"Yeah, they won't stay straight."

"You need to adjust the pads here."

"I know that, but I can't get them right, they keep falling."

"Probably because you haven't worn glasses in so long."

"Fix it for me at lunch."

"What makes you think I can do it?"

"What good is acing every subject if you can't fix a pair of glasses?"

"Fine, fine. I'll try...oh."

The gate. It was shut.

"Crap," he said.

Nino checked her watch. "Two minutes after. They sure are strict."

"I've never been late to class before...my perfect attendance..."

"It's not the end of the world." Nino mused. Then she did something that was so definitively her that it assured him that Nino was going to be okay. She turned to him, her lips curling into a devilish grin assuring that mischief wasn't far away. He loved that fire of hers.

"Well, since we're already late, how about we go-"

"No."

"Just for a-"

"No."

"You don't even know what-"

"I do. And no. There is nothing you could give me to play hookie a week before the mock exams."

She huffed, "Fine, you're no fun sometimes." Then she adjusted her glasses, saying, "Let's get this over with then."

**A/N**

I owe everyone an explanation. It's been months since I updated and it's the least I can provide. The first half of this chapter was completed at the end of January, and as I moved onto Futaro's part, I got stuck. It was like falling into a snow pit and having to wait for the snow to thaw before feeling free. I couldn't find a way to make his section work, and after several rewrites I took a step back and gave myself time to reset. Several days turned in to weeks, and I kept saying I'd get back to this chapter tomorrow. And now, over four months later, it's done. I finally forced myself to open this up again and force the conclusion. If I say so, I still think this chapter, at least the second half, is the worst writing I've done in this story. Perhaps it's something that just needs to get done and out there so I can move on to better writing. If I can, I will come back to this someday if I feel like I can improve this. I'm not satisfied, but I want it done. At last.

What finally convinced me to settle this chapter was comments from all of you. Even as of last week, people reached out to me asking if the story would continue. A few words carry great meaning and finally pushed me back to my keyboard. I'm glad for them, and thankful that you took the time to encourage me. I needed that support (kick in my ass) to get this going again. And now it is. We'll see how long I can keep the streak now.

I'll shoot for my old schedule, a post every two weeks. If I can't meet it, that's fine. I don't want to bind myself to a schedule absolutely, but a goal will push me forward. For those of you who are still here with me, thank you for sticking around. Let's continue. Please review, criticize, and stand by for the next chapter.

Chapter published: June 4th, 2020.


	23. The Prince And The Pauper

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 2****3**

**The Prince And The Pauper**

**~Itsuki~**

"You're getting used to them?" Itsuki said.

Nino tapped the rim of her glasses like an old-time banker testing his scales. "Oh don't go that far, these thing'll never be part of my 'normal'. But what other choice do I have? Without them it's only a matter of time before I run into a wall and break my nose, or down an open manhole, or, something equally gross. I hadn't thought of all the horrible things that can happen just because I can't see."

"If you let the government declare you legally blind, you can walk around with a cane. That could be fun."

"Ha. Ha. Who even uses a cane anymore?"

"Blind people. Like you."

"It's even less funny the second time."

"Whatever you say," Itsuki took a sip of their shared iced americano and said, "Still, it's good to see you back to normal."

"Well maybe I was a tiny bit overdramatic."

"I'm glad you-"

"But really, glasses of all things! Do you have any idea how hard it is to make them work?"

"Yes."

"Oh, right. But you're an exception like me. Sure, plenty of girls think they look cute, but glasses just make them look like bug-eyed bookworms. It takes a certain refinement to work with these, and I'm lucky enough to have the perfect combination of grace and beauty to pull them off."

Itsuki thought she was still trying to convince herself with happy talk. "Does Futaro think so too?"

Nino glanced towards the sky in heavy thought, failing to hide a hint of pink coloring her cheeks, "Oh he's fine. He'd be fine with anything, really. I could show up in a sari and he'd start prattling on about Indian colonialism."

"Sounds like him."

"It kinda sucks though. I think he's only complimenting me because he read it in some dating guide, not because he means it."

"At least he can learn. But, what did he say? Come on, you were way different when you came to class yesterday, he must've said something to make you feel better."

"Alright, alright! No need to press like that."

"This coming from you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Wow."

"What!?"

"Alright, never mind. Spill it."

"Well, he doesn't hate them."

"Duh. And?"

"You're having too much fun with this."

"Guilty."

"Fine. He told me I look pretty with them. But I don't think he really notices a change, to be honest."

"Huh. Id've thought that'd be his thing."

"Any reason?"

"Well he spends so much time in libraries, and I thought that, you know, maybe he developed a type."

"Oh my god you thought he had a librarian fetish!?"

"Well, maybe?"

"You're kidding!"

"Stop laughing! It makes sense, right?"

"You know what? It does. It really does."

"You don't think...forget it."

"Lets. I never want to think about that again." Nino relaxed into the plushiest chair she'd felt in months, the best seats at the cafe won through luck, cunning and patience. Suddenly she shot forward, grinning like a mad-woman Itsuki feared she was becoming, "Alright, enough about my love life. What about you?"

Itsuki blinked in confusion, "What love life?"

"Exactly! I know Uesugi isn't your type, and thank heaven for that, but there's gotta be someone that's caught your eye."

Nino must have taken her skiddish silence as an admission she didn't have, "There is, isn't there. I knew it! I bet you're too shy to come right out with it, but you shouldn't worry about that. I promise you boys will be more afraid of you than you are of them. They're like little dogs that way."

"Futaro?" She asked, leaning back to balance the distance between them as Nino closed in like a shark smelling blood.

"Well, no, but he's always the exception. But I bet you could get any guy you set your eyes on if you tried. And you have the perfect love guru to guide you. I've got all the experience you'll need to land the budding prince charming of your dreams! So come on, out with it! What's his name?"

Itsuki waited a moment, asking, "Is it my turn?"

"Huh? Yeah, that's what I said."

"Well, there isn't a name."

"No one?"

"Nope."

"Alright, but I don't mean full-on head over heels in love like me, you know. I mean like, baby's first boyfriend levels of crushing."

"Answer's the same there too."

"Come on, there's gotta be someone you're interested in. I know our school isn't a luxury buffet or anything. I noticed the a definite step-down in the hot guy to girl ratio when we transferred here, it sucked. But there are, you know. A few."

"And I'm crushing on precisely zero of them."

Nino deflated like a tube-man after the fan shut off, "Really? No one? Not even a-"

"No, not even a little."

Nino leaned back in her seat, grabbing their drink and looking perturbed, "Alright, fine. You don't gotta act upset, I was just curious."

Itsuki let it go, but she suspected Nino's curiosity would hibernate until it felt the warm new spring. She could see through her sister's veiled attempts as clearly as a sniper sees her mark. Joy and miserly love company, and Nino had none but the ignorant. She wanted to share the quirks and frustrations of new love with someone like her, someone's girlfriend. Sure she had girlfriends at school who were supposedly happily attached, but as much a socialite as she was, she didn't trust them with something so personal. She drew a clear line between friends and family, and some details would never make it past the divide. She needed her sisters. And Itsuki couldn't give her that. Not that Nino would understand why.

Itsuki said, "I can't explain it, I'm just not interested."

"Are we still in the same gym class? Because a couple of the guys, well, I thought they made class more fun back then."

Itsuki rolled her eyes, "That's so vain. Try listening to them for thirty seconds and you'll change your mind if their egos don't bury you."

She shrugged, "It's just eye candy, the boys treat us the same." Nino swirled the last few mouthfuls of cold caffeine and mused, "Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time you had a crush on anybody. I mean, Ichika told me she thought Takeda was cute our first day, but not counting Fuu, that's it. That's not normal, right?"

"It'll happen when it happens. I just haven't found a guy I'm interested in," Itsuki said. It wasn't technically a lie. "And I wouldn't have time even if I wanted that kind of thing. If I want to be a teacher, that's where I need to be putting all my effort. All this catch-up is enough on my plate as it is."

"Please, it's not that bad."

Itsuki raised her eyebrow, "Would you call these last few weeks stable for you?"

She waved it off like banishing a bad smell, "Me and Fuu are the exception! I'm sure it'd be so much smoother for you."

"Yeah, but why risk it now? Let's get to college first, then we'll see."

"Too late for me," she sighed, feigning distress.

"You're doing it again."

"I am not!"

Yes she was, and she was loving it. Forget Ichika, Nino should headline the latest Soap. She wouldn't even have to act, melodrama spewed from her like lather from soap. Itsuki went on, "If anyone's going to date next, my money's on Ichika. Young celebrities are never single for long."

Nino said, "I really hope we're done with this whole family feud thing by then. She's gonna have the best insider scoops."

"She's not a gossip."

"Well yeah, not now. But once you're there, you're there. You think they'll ever put her in one of those magazines?"

"What magazines?"

"The tabloids! The one with all the 'gotcha!' photos, you know?"

"I hope not. Imagine when they find out we're quintuplets."

"I hope they do! If they put us on the front page, I'm framing it." Nino checked her phone and nodded, "Yup, they're on their way."

"Time to go?"

"Yup. Want the rest?" She offered the cup, which Itsuki took gratefully. "You sure you don't want to join us?"

"For shopping? With what?"

"Point taken, but it's the journey that matters." She hefted her shopping bag and waved, "See you at home."

"Yeah, take care."

Itsuki stood and leaned on the railing, watching Nino descend the stairs and stride out the cafe. She stared at the closing doors as they swiveled on their hinge long after the little bell finished jingling goodbye. She felt something welling inside her belly, like a large meal that wouldn't settle.

Mother's death had been a great schism in their world. They could no longer be five wholly alike siblings, they had to divide to fill in the cracks she left behind. Only by picking up the different pieces could they make themselves whole again. Hers wasn't as much an assumption of duty as a continuation.

It had always been her that their mother pulled aside to whisper, look after your siblings, keep them out of trouble, and get them on the straight and narrow as best you can. She didn't know why her mother chose her, but she had. What could Itsuki do but follow? Maybe because, as the littlest and being always at the rear, if her sisters fell or veered off the path, she could spot them and bring them back. She'd learned to channel her mother's voice, the only one her sisters would follow. So when mother died, hers was the last echo of that authority. She kept it strong through their teens. She felt with her strength, their mother was never truly gone. Now she felt it weakening like thunder fading in the mountains.

Did mothers naturally lose their place in their children's lives? She couldn't know firsthand, she only knew that she was failing to keep her family on the right path. Now her sisters were scattering like pollen in the breeze. It terrified her, watching her family change before her eyes. Was this what growing up means? If so, it terrified her. Now her sisters were at constant war and she was powerless to bring them back together. Every attempt she'd made ended with failure. She felt like a bystander forced to choose a side without knowing if she still belonged.

And if this wasn't a part of growing? If this had all been fixable and she simply failed to see how? Well that was worse, and she wondered if mother had chosen the wrong daughter to act as guardian.

A part of her wanted to wind back the clock and return to their old normal. But then Nino wouldn't have found love, and Yotsuba wouldn't have her best friend. But Ichika was growing cold, Miku was lost, and she was watching her place in the world crumble and disappear.

_**~Nino~**_

Their budget was in the red.

Rent was due and they were short. She wouldn't see her paycheck until tomorrow, Itsuki's wouldn't arrive until three days later, and Yotsuba's a week after that. Their landlord's timeline was draconian and without mercy. She'd already slid their check into his mailbox, but that bought her hours when she needed days. A bounced check means no payment, and no payment means eviction, and eviction means defeat. She couldn't return home a loser. She could see the false pity on Ichika's face and Papa's quiet certitude that this couldn't have ended any other way. Her pride wouldn't survive the insult. She would get the rent paid. She needed money now.

She hadn't told the others yet. With Ichika gone, she'd taken over the finances and was the only one with fingers on their economic pulse, and it was weak. But she wasn't ready to share it. Not yet. This whole affair was because of her stupid choice to keep things a secret for so long. She wouldn't burden the others unless there was no other choice. And she still had one left.

Returning to the boutique was a test of willpower. A shared coffee had long ago become a luxury, but her dress had been an oasis in the sweltering heat of their poverty. It was Ichika's final gift before the waters between them acidified. She felt like she was returning the last of Ichika's love with it, and she didn't know when she'd receive it again. But it had been bought on their joint account, the one they'd opened together in their first act of defiance against Papa. It felt like cheating after Ichika purposefully removed all her money from their account. But a missed move was her opportunity, and she needed all she could get.

"I'm here to return this," she told the sales clerk.

She took the dress and examined it with a smile. Employees were compensated for kindness in stores like this, even when returns meant lost commissions. "I see, and was there any problem with it?"

"No, just didn't fit as well as I thought."

"Would you like to exchange it for another size?"

"No thanks, just put it back on the card, please."

"Alright, just one moment ma'am."

Nino wondered if she could sense the real reason for her return, and if she resented her. She hated feeling poor, it made her feel like less of a woman. She wondered how Futaro never felt this way. His family's financial status never defined his worth. She envied his freedom.

She stayed composed as she took her amended receipt and made for the exit. She passed dozens of beautiful dresses she could no longer afford. Walking among them made her feel like an impostor who couldn't blend in. She felt noticeably better once she walked outside, like dropping a ruck sack after a painful hike. It was done, the rent was settled. All it cost her was a silly dress. No big loss. She would have liked to have worn it for Futaro. He wouldn't have cared though, would he. One of his many downsides she got tired of counting. But at least it wasn't a loss, right?

She set it aside and headed for the center of the mall. She took a seat on the bench and texted Futaro as she waited for her friends. He hadn't read her last few texts either, and he wouldn't for some time. He'd be busy studying until she reminded him to take a break. Even those was turning into a luxury. The mock exams were less than a week away. Next Thursday their bet would be made, or lost. Even she was buckling down in her off hours. If he lost to Papa for any reason, it wouldn't be her. She was worried how quickly the time had fallen away.

Today would be her last afternoon out on the town before an evening full of her boyfriend's well-meaning abuse. She didn't mind, she was determined to pass. But she had a few hours before all that, and she planned to enjoy them as best she could. So when her friends arrived she was happy for a morning at the mall, just like before. She hugged them and gasped at how long it'd been since they all got together.

It had been a while since she just went out with her friends. No studies to boggle her mind, no Futaro to leave her fuming or flustered, no family fued to break her world, just a getaway window shopping with her girls. She followed her friends as their whims blew them from one store to another like a summer breeze over rolling hills.

Nino insisted they stop in the department store at the end of the mall. Her friends dutifully followed her into the jewelry section, and lost all pretense at hiding their confusion as they entered the men's section. Nino and the sales rep examined half a dozen watches before she settled on a sleek, silver-banded beauty she couldn't wait to set on Futaro's wrist. She bought this with money she'd withdrawn before arriving at the mall. It meant something to her that she paid the eight-thousand yen price tag with money that came from her paycheck, even if the refund had to cover the rest of the shortfall. She declined gift wrapping, knowing she'd do that part herself, and happily carried her purchase out in a small paper bag.

And then Kari pulled them into another store, a chic emporium that was oddly familiar. She didn't notice it was the same store she'd returned the dress to until she was past the door, and by then it was too late. She prayed that the sales woman from before wouldn't be there, but of course she was, it had hardly been more than an hour. And of course Nino looked at her right as she turned to greet the trio. She was far too professional to show her recognition, but it had to be there. Nino made herself small as her two friends perused, attaching herself like a shadow until they left without a single souvenir.

That should have been the worst part of her day, but then they stopped for lunch and her friends popped the question one everyone's minds.

"So that watch, it's not for your dad, is it?" Kari asked.

Nino said, "No, it's for Futaro. Next Friday is his birthday."

"So, you and Uesugi are really a thing now?"

Nino knew it was coming and thought she was ready. Since they'd changed classes at the beginning of the year, they'd saved all their chatting for the weekends. She said, "That's pretty obvious by now, isn't it."

Their other friend, Yumi, said, "Well yeah, we're not really doubting. And that was just a blast, by the way, watching the entire thing blow up on twitter."

Kari said, "But that's not what I'm asking. It's more like...why?"

"Why what?"

"You know. Why him in the first place?"

Nino asked, "Have you met him?"

Kari said, "I'm aware of him, does that count?"

Yumi said, "It doesn't, everyone is aware of him. You can't not be aware of Uesugi. That's kinda why we're asking, why him?"

So it was we now? Nino wondered if they'd storyboarded this. "Yeah yeah, he's the smartest robot in the assembly line. He has all the personality of a wet piece of cardboard. His test scores and his social skills are directly inverse. Anything else?"

"He's poor."

"And dangerously thin."

"And he's always glaring."

"And he thinks he's smarter than everyone, even the teachers."

Nino butted in, "To be fair on that last one, he usually is. No, that's enough, I get it. But have you ever talked to him?"

"Uh, no, not willingly."

"Same."

"Well if you did, you'd understand. He's been tutoring my family for half a year, and yes, there's a lot of glaring and smart-alecking, and I know he loves being the smartest guy in the room. But he's also really sweet underneath all that. He doesn't talk with anyone unless he sees a reason to. Normally he just wants to be left alone to study. Until me, of course," she said with pride.

Kari said, "Okay, but still, him and you? That's like positive and negative coming together."

Nino said, "Don't they do that naturally? Futaro said so."

"Uh, oh. Right. Well bad example. The point is, you're, like, the opposite of Futaro in every possible way. You two getting together is like the North Pole and South Pole becoming neighbors, it'll only happen when the world collapses."

"We're more alike than you'd think," Nino mused, playing through their long, late nights together. "You wouldn't understand, it's complicated."

Yumi said, "Oh, don't do that. Alike how? Come on, don't hold back on us. This is the greatest mystery of the universe we're facing here!"

Kari asked, "Yeah, what else is so great about him?"

"Well, he looks good riding a motorcycle," Nino mused.

"Not what I meant. Answer me this: how long have you two been together now?"

"Two weeks today. Or yesterday. One of the two, we haven't decided." Meaning she hadn't, Futaro probably wouldn't fight the specifics. At least, not these specifics.

"Just two weeks?"

"Yup."

The knowing look they shared was Nino's first sign that something was up. "You sure it wasn't, well, a bit longer?"

"Uh, duh. I was there."

Yumi said, "Come on, you can tell us if it was."

Nino said, "Two weeks. Fourteen days. I can still count."

"Look, all I'm saying is it sounds like you two were together a long time before that."

"Where is that coming from?"

Yumi shot a quick glance at Kari, who said, "Just something we overheard. I mean, you were working together for a long while."

"Well it was just two weeks ago. Sure, I liked him before that, but we weren't dating before then."

"Oh, so that's when the dating started. But was there anything else before that?"

"Like what?" Nino asked. They glanced expectantly at each other again and Nino felt tired at being left outside the know, "Seriously, what the hell? Where're you taking this?"

Kari sighed, "Oh, nowhere. Just curious. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."

But Yumi said, "Oh no, I wanna know. What's the deal with Uesugi? He's gotta have something good to get you this interested in him. We promise not to tell anyone."

"I already told you-"

"But not everything, right?"

"That's too personal!"

Kari giggled, "Oh I bet it is."

"It? What's this _it_!?" Nino demanded.

They couldn't explain, breaking out in a fit of giggles. Nino huffed and packed the rest of her lunch plate, "Alright, you wanna play games? Fine. Have fun, see what I care. I should've known you wouldn't understand."

"Oh I think we do, we get it alright," Yumi said between giggles.

"But not like you do, I bet," Kari snorted.

Nino growled and took her food, "Screw off then! I don't need this."

She stormed away like an F1 on the straightaway. She heard them say just as she was leaving earshot, "I bet I know what she needs."

"_It_!"

Fuck. Just, fuck! She knew this was coming. She'd teased the oddball couples peppered around school before, she knew it was on its way to her like karma coming to collect. She knew they'd tease her for her choice in men. But this was worse than her wildest dreams!

Well fuck them. Let them giggle all the way to graduation if they wanted to!

She snapped to her phone and texted Futaro that she as on her way. If he didn't pick up, he'd be in for a surprise. She needed a palate cleanser after this shit sandwich.

_**~Futaro~**_

"No, you've got it wrong," Takeda insisted, "research clearly points to coffee having negligible ill effects on human health!"

Futaro rolled his eyes, "What research? You mean those data dredging indignities to the scientific method? You can find some kind of published research supporting every crack-pot theory from here to the flat earth on the back of a turtle! You can wipe your shoe with a piece of blank paper, and you'll still find some penny dreadful scientific journal willing to publish! You have to check the methodology."

"Exactly, that's my point! Piles and piles of credible, respected papers have been published in no-bullshit journals that back this up! You can toss out everything even remotely questionable and you'll still have plenty of evidence! Coffee is fine, you can drink it 'til you die and you'll be as healthy as a teetotaler next to an alcoholic!"

"You know a teetotaler can still drink coffee-"

"Not my point. What matters is that people have been drinking coffee for hundreds of years. If there were any noticeable effects aside from the buzz, we'd see them."

"First, I'll counter every paper you can find with another saying the opposite, and it'll be just as accredited and have just as many PhDs under the title. Coffee can lead to hypertension, dehydration, insomnia and caffeine addiction, and I'm hardly scratching the surface of what's been researched!"

"And it's good you stopped, because if you went any further you'd really be grasping at straws. What's next? Osteoporosis? Cardiovascular disease? Cancer?"

"That last one might have some evidence-"

"Everything gives you cancer! Everything is a carcinogen to some extent! Might as well stop breathing if you're worried enough to cite that."

"The point is that too much coffee can have those harmful effects!"

"Too much!? How much is too much!? Five cups a day? Seven? Seven_ty? _Far, far more than the average person consumes, even at the extreme end of the bell curve!"

"But not impossible, especially in those with preexisting conditions. Coffee can be the instigator."

"Can, but not fully proven."

"Not in all cases, but it could be. And that danger is itself reason enough to justify further study!"

"I agree!"

"So we agree?"

"I...guess we do."

Futaro leaned back and sipped his black coffee. In spite of his earlier arguments, the benefits outweighed potential harms. "Well, that's settled then."

"Good. Now where were we?"

"Electrovalence in covalent bonds." Futaro flipped open his phone, "We got sidetracked...ten minutes ago."

Takeda rubbed his temple, "Great. Can we focus up here? We're burning daylight."

"We're inside-"

"Don't, not again. Focus up man. Move on."

Futaro shrugged and turned the page of their shared study guide. They'd made remarkable progress for the average test taker, but they were shooting for the top of the mountain, the median wasn't enough. Futaro thought they could have finished the entire book by now if they weren't finding something debatable every other page.

That in itself wasn't a detriment. Futaro was used to arguing his point. The problem was Takeda fought back. Worse, he was good at it. He actually used Futaro's trademark technique: citing research papers he'd studied in the footnotes with names and all, to back up his points. Futaro was used to an argument ending as soon as he pulled up his first reference from his mental library. He'd been struck dumb the first time Takeda did the same. And when he did it again, Futaro took a crash course in debate. It might be the hardest, quickest thinking he'd ever done. It might be missing the point of exam prep, but it was by far the best mental exercise he'd had in years. He actually left the table with headaches after a particularly vigorous exchange of words.

Takeda closed the science section and opened up math. He read the opening paragraph and sighed, "I've worked enough logarithms to last a semester."

"Wanna skip it?"

"You good with them?"

"Good enough for the exams. They giving you trouble?"

"Not me. Them."

"Oh." Ichika, Miku. They always bubbled up in their studies somehow, even after they finished prepping their next study plan. "They giving you trouble again?"

"Same as before. Miku isn't retaining anything I teach her with these, and Ichika keeps demanding to know when she'll ever use this in her life."

"Id've told her she'll need it in case they cast her as a teacher or a scientist."

"I tried that, actually. She insisted they scripted everything for her."

"The lazy acting method."

"An excuse is an excuse to her," Takeda groaned. "How did you ever get them to cooperate?"

"Bribes. Threats. Begging on my knees."

"That's too uncouth."

"It worked. Is Ichika on her phone during lessons?"

"Yeah, she says she has to have it in case her agent needs her."

"Take it and threaten to throw it out the window if she doesn't cooperate."

"Not funny."

"No joke, I'm serious."

"Did you ever do that?"

"Not with her, no. I never needed to go that far. But she used to be much better behaved than how you're describing her. You can't let her get her way. If you give her room, she'll use it. Show her tutoring hours belong to you."

"I'll avoid threatening her phone."

"You might be able to get away with it. I couldn't."

"Why's that?"

"I needed the job. You don't. You can threaten them all you want and get away with it. Probably more than threaten, if need be."

Takeda glowered and said, "I need it more than you think."

"Doesn't look that way to me."

"Well what do you know?"

"More than you, apparently."

"So tell me, what about Miku?"

"Math's always been a weakness for her. I mean, comparatively. Set her down and go over it again and again. And have Ichika help her where she can, they learn best when they're helping each other. She'll pick it up eventually."

"You sound so sure."

"Because I am. I know her. She learns like I did back when I started taking studies seriously. I used to be as bad as her."

Takeda froze, "What? When the hell was that?"

"Hmm, years ago. I was a bit of a punk in primary, I must've ranked near the bottom of my class. I didn't start trying until five, six years ago."

Futaro waited for Takeda to take this wherever he seemingly wanted to take it. When the silence lingered like a drawn longbow, he glanced at the other boy and caught his fiery stare of disbelief. He bristled as if Futaro cursed his unborn children. He asked, "What's up?"

The question was like an alarm. Takeda blinked and sheathed his anger, trying to grin, "Oh, nothing. Just thinking."

Futaro had no idea what Takeda had on his mind, nor did he particularly care. "Alright, so let's move on."

"Sneak attack!"

A sudden weight tackled him from behind like a sledgehammer. Futaro yelped and tumbled out of his chair, taking the clinging attacker with him to the ground.

Nino cried out, "Ow! What the hell, Fuu?"

He felt he should've been the one asking that. He huffed and picked himself up as Nino did the same, dusting off her blouse. "A little warning would've been nice."

"It's a sneak attack! But you'd have known if you'd ever check your phone, I told you I was coming, you know!"

Was he supposed to bind himself to his phone like a ball and chain? Forget it, this was not the hill he died on today. He glanced at Takeda, who was taking all this with no small amusement. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

Nino looked at him, "Takeda."

"Nakano."

"How are my sisters?"

Takeda sighed wearily, she'd asked for family details each time she'd interrupted, and she wouldn't let up until he gave more specifics than a tutor could comfortably give. When would she learn he wasn't her spy? He said, "Since yesterday? Nothing new, really. I think Ichika mentioned an audition for a bit part went poorly, but nothing else."

"And Miku?"

"What about her?"

"Did she tell you what she was doing this weekend?"

"She better be studying."

"Not what I asked."

"If she is, she didn't tell me. Does she normally do something on the weekends?"

Nino sighed, "Alright, never mind. Are you two done?"

"Good enough," Takeda answered. In truth they had a few more lessons remaining on the docket, but studies were over as soon as she arrived. The first time she'd interrupted their session she'd offered to sit and wait while they finished up. She even tried to join in! What a mistake that had been. Futaro watched the hope slowly leave her eyes as they raced through questions far beyond her skills to answer, until she wondered if there was any point in trying to catch up. There was, and he couldn't see that broken by being outclassed. So even though he knew she'd offer to wait on them, it was better this way.

That, and he was reaching his limits with his study partner. Takeda was like cumin, best in pinches, not tablespoons. He could only take so much Takeda in one sitting.

"Wanna pick up same time tomorrow?" He asked Takeda.

Takeda raised his mug, "Cheers."

He quickly gathered his supplies and left with Nino on his arm. He felt something pulsing unpleasantly in his stomach like a knot and wondered if he was cramping. He gently rubbed it with his free hand as they walked.

She asked him, "Did you see my texts?"

"No, I'll check them later."

Nino nudged him, "No, do it now."

"Why? You're here."

"I put a lot of thought into them!"

"Alright, alright."

"Stop saying it twice, you sound annoyed."

"Fine, fine."

"Seriously!"

He kind of was annoyed, but hey, it was a small favor. He browsed through her texts riddled with hearts and emojis, and hearted emojis. She smiled as he read, and maybe one crawled on his lips as well. Nino's love was infectious.

"You're early. I wasn't expecting you for another hour."

"Yeah, well things kinda went to crap with my friends."

"Oh? What happened?"

"They were asking about us and got all weird, like me dating you was against the laws of nature."

"That's hyperbole. Stupid to say something like that."

"Well they did. I got fed up with their BS and left."

"Everything alright between you guys?"

"I dunno, I don't think so. I don't get what they're getting at. I mean sure, I wouldn't have pictured us as a couple if I wasn't part of it. If space-time had a hiccup and I ran into the me from six months ago, she'd vomit if I told her."

"Gee, thanks."

"Come on, you'd do the same."

"I'd be more interested in breaking space-time."

"Yeah, you would. But it'd still be weird for you. You used to think love was some kinda disease that scientists needed to unite to cure."

"That sounds more like it."

"See? But we got together anyways. So yeah, it might be weird for anyone else to believe, but they were just so mean about it." Nino squeezed his arm and leaned in closer, her voice softening like a dimming light, "I don't wanna talk about this. Can we do something?"

"We need to study," Futaro mused. The exams were a lead weight on his mind. But Nino wasn't ready to learn a thing. She was easily consumed by a lingering word, picking it apart like an overgrown scab. She wanted, maybe needed something to take her mind off of her friends. That was part of his job description now, wasn't it?

"But we have time before that. Wanna go to the park?"

Nino looked at him questioningly, "Aren't we gonna meet the others?"

"Well you are an hour early."

She slid her fingers out of his hand. Her fingers glided up his forearm, his hairs staood on end like a power surge. She grinned and let go to skip ahead. He loved her energy, it didn't matter where they were or who was watching, she always showed everyone who cared to see exactly who she was. She was a fire dancing freely in the wind. She skipped like she was flying through a field of sunflowers and he loved watching her go.

He didn't order his eyes to fall, and yet they tumbled down, down, down. And his eyes couldn't help noticing as they slowly slithered south that Nino's attire really put the skinny in skinny jeans. And he remembered that most of Nino's wardrobe consisted of dresses, skirts and other flowing garments straight out of those expensive catalogs he saw on magazine stands. Pants weren't the norm for her, they were the exception. A very curvy, shapely exception.

She was doing this on purpose, wasn't she? It was like she was dangling Eden's apple right under his nose. Oh god, that made it sound like she wanted him to bite her...apple.

...Did she?

Suddenly Nino twirled like a dancer on the stage of life. She eyed him carefully like a mother checking her child standing awfully close to the cookie jar. Futaro's eyes rose just in time. Or, he hoped they did.

Nino grinned knowingly, her eyes sparkling like crystals made of starlight, "Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go!"

_**~Yusuke~**_

"I can't friggin' believe it!" Yusuke cried down the empty road.

"Sounds like it," Maeda groaned.

"This asshole admitted that he was a no-good delinquent all the way through primary. And then, one day, he suddenly decides to give a shit, and poof! Einstein reincarnate!"

"You don't say."

"I've been working since day one, day fucking one, to be the best of the best. And this guy comes outta nowhere and shoves me out of the spotlight on, what, a whim? Like he just thought, 'hmm, I guess I'll give being the top academic in the entire freaking country a go, doesn't seem so hard,' and then does it!"

"Ugh," Maeda groaned.

Yusuke stopped, "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I boring you?"

"To death. I'm glad you noticed, I was almost a goner."

"This is serious!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

"Well it's all I can think about. If you don't wanna share my misery, go home."

"Quit being such a drama queen. I was just enjoying the break, that's all."

"What break?"

"This! You finally stopped bitching about Uesugi for, what, a couple weeks? And just when I think you're over him he's suddenly all you can talk about! Again! It's like watching you get back together with a toxic ex-girlfriend, man!"

Yusuke shoved his hands in his pockets and grumbled, "I wasn't that bad."

"Oh you were. Once a week like clockwork it was Uesugi this, Uesugi that, blah blah blah. And I get it man, you could never top him for, what was it? Two years? Well guess what? You finally did it, crushed him in the final exams like an empty soda can, and it still wasn't enough. Now you're right back to complaining like a broken record. You're more obsessed with him than Romeo with Juliet. I should buy you a punching bag with his face on it!"

"Now who's being overdramatic?"

"Whatever man, you know it's true. You'd feel good knocking it out in the morning. Start your day with a little victory over the android, ya know?"

"Dude, you know how much my dad would freak if he saw his picture at home?"

"He doesn't already have one?"

"Nope."

"You sure?"

"Even better! You should do it and call his therapist, tell him he's a rich man."

Yusuke couldn't help laughing, "I'd be a corpse if he found out it was me."

"Well, and that's the problem, too. You know where all this obsession with Uesegi's gotta come from, right? It's like this horrible fraternal present."

"He'd shut up about it if I just beat him. It's my own fault I can't."

"Cut that crap, man. Don't go talking like him."

"But he's right! I had the best schooling at one of the best prep schools in the country, and he's kicking my ass left and right like I owe him blood money!"

"Who cares? I'll tell you: just your old man. You wouldn't give a single fuck if he wasn't breathing down your neck like an angry mutt."

"That isn't it."

"Oh yeah it is. Your dad's an asshole, man."

"Yeah, I know," Yusuke sighed.

"He is. And your mom's even worse, but she's gone on business too often to be another devil on your shoulder, thank God. They only care because Uesegi's a wild card who came outta nowhere. They wouldn't bat their pampered eyelashes if he was some minister's heir. But because he's a commoner, he's not allowed to outclass their precious spawn. They can't fathom the idea that his hard work can actually means something. And neither can you, because you actually listen to them. If you just shut them out for a bit, I bet you and Uesugi'd get along just fine."

Yusuke said, "He's my dad, man. I can't just ignore him."

"Really," Maeda pondered. "Where does he think you are right now?"

"Cram school."

"And why's that? Is it because if he found out you were still hanging around me, he'd beat your ass for that too?"

"Pretty much."

"Right, because my family name means dirt like Uesugi. You can't network with me, I'm just a cog in the national machine in your dad's eyes. The only reason we even got to be friends is because church doesn't discriminate like that. I bet he thought it was cute watching you play with the peasants back when we're all young and cute, but he'd blow his blood pressure if he saw us now. So when the hell did you start listening to him about all that shit?"

"Yeah, I got all that. But there's a lot that you just can't get, okay?"

"Oh don't start that bullshit."

"It's true! I can't just tell him off, or he'd-"

"What? What can he really do?"

Yusuke gently touched his cheek and thought over all the things in his father's power to do. Move him across the country, send him to the Defense Forces, anything that was punishment and progress at the same time. But Maeda couldn't understand. You had to live with that guillotine hovering above your neck to see it. "Enough."

Maeda scoffed, "Right, whatever that is. He's still planning to make you the Prime Minister of Planet Earth?"

"Just Japan so far."

"Oh, still on the baby steps, then," Maeda mocked. "Fuckin' megalomaniac prick." It should bother most sons hearing their father insulted so freely. But it couldn't bother Yusuke. He'd thought it secretly often enough, so secretly that he almost missed it when it trespassed in his consciousness. Maeda gave his thoughts voice. He was free of the restraints that bound Yusuke. Hearing his words was like cleaning a neglected window after a dust storm.

Maeda continued, "You know why he's making all these crazy plans for you in the first place?"

Yes, but he wanted to hear Maeda say it. He could never say it out loud himself.

"You see this is what pisses me off. Your dad's got the right history and the right friends and the right family name, but he is a total fucking dumbass. If all was fair, he'd be nothing more than a line worker instead of an undersecretary, which even with all his connections is the highest his stupid ass is ever gonna go. But you are everything he wishes he could be. You got the mind and the name and the skills to get you as far as you wanna go. No one with brains is gonna trust him with something actually important. So he's aiming you. That's why you're the least free person I know, and it's sad. And not because he decided it, either, but because you keep letting him. But you know something? Wanna know why I still hang around with you?"

He liked this part, it's the part that kept his feet firmly on the earth, "What is it?"

"It's because you're actually a good dude. When you're not being all plastic and shit, that is."

Yusuke smirked, "Plastic?"

"You know what I mean. I swear I should package you and sell you at the doll shop when you get all radiant and fake."

Is that what he was? Sometimes he couldn't tell which was which. Perhaps one day the fake would supplant the original to become the real him. He knew Maeda would fight against it, but every day he had to go back home and report, and that man would list everything he did wrong and needed to improve. Every day he felt a little more of that good dude eaten away. And maybe one day he'd wake up and look in the mirror and that good dude wouldn't be there anymore. He would see his father's ideal staring back at him. Would he even notice if it happened?

And if he didn't follow that path, what then? If he broke from his father's wishes and pursued something outside the political realm, where would he even start? His entire life had been mapped since his birth, he didn't know anything else. If he found the courage to abandon his father's dream and find his own, where it would lead? The world outside his destiny was marred with shadow and doubt with its infinity. It all seemed impossible. If he told Maeda any of this, he wouldn't let him believe it. But he couldn't do it here. It felt like getting his hopes up. Perhaps he was too far gone to truly change who he was, and what he would become.

Yusuke noticed a pair of slender sticks next to the trail. He picked them up and weighed them. "Here," he handed one to Maeda.

He took it and asked, "What's this for?"

He motioned to the river, "On three." The pair moved next to each other and readied their sticks. Yusuke gave the count down and on three the two threw their sticks as far as they could. They watched them tumble gracelessly end over end into the dying river. They fell without sound against the wind, with Yusuke's clearing Maeda's by a meter.

Yusuke thrust his hand up in victory, "Too easy!"

"You gave me a shitty stick, anyways."

_**~Ichika~**_

She'd agreed to come for this moment. Being surrounded by a gaggle of girls all grinning at proximity to fame was a dreadful affair. She'd have preferred to spend her Sunday afternoon at the spa, on a shoot or quietly snoozing at home. So why had she agreed to join this cluster of faces for a day at the strip? Because she had this chance, right now. The one she'd played in her head any number of times. She needed it to go perfectly.

All she needed was a segue. She'd been waiting for it since her day began. She'd pondered taking advantage of a few of them, but they were too awkward for her taste. She needed something organic to make the leap, like an Olympic diver springing gracefully into the pool. And then it came. A girl who's name she couldn't remember brought up last year's school trip to the woods and the horrible luck she'd had at the fire. Turns out she'd danced with a boy, only to have her heart stepped on the very next day.

Ichika laughed, and when asked why, she assured her it wasn't because of her story. "Oh, it's just that thinking about the trip brings back memories."

They inquired. She knew they would. They insisted on the full story. Anything to keep the young actress involved.

Ichika waved them away, "Oh no, it's not appropriate. It isn't even about me."

Still they pressed on one after another, everyone asking for a story. She'd teased them with bits and pieces of life on set and secrets from behind the scenes. She needed to keep their appetites hungry so that when she told them what she really wanted to say, they'd listen like hungry rabbits on an open prairie.

"Okay, okay! If you insist! But again, this isn't about me, it's about my sister Nino."

Some of their eyes twinkled knowingly. They sensed what was coming.

"So this happened early on. Remember the test of courage? Well Nino and my other sister Itsuki were making their attempt deep in the woods. Suddenly they get separated! Itsuki has no clue where Nino went off to! She wandered around in the forest for over an hour before finding Nino again. She just suddenly waltzed out of the forest glowing like a flashlight, and with a huge rip in her skirt all the way up her thigh."'

Some oohs and ahhs, and she went for the kill, "We asked her what happened in the forest, but she wouldn't say how she ripped her clothing. But later on, she mentioned how she'd met the most charming boy of her life and was totally head over heels!"

One of the girls squealed, "Oh my god! You think they did it?"

Ichika sighed, "Well I can't say that, but I have been wondering how she got her skirt ripped. It is awfully suspicious." She sat back and watched the dominoes begin to fall.

"Oh! I remember, she was telling me about this boy she met at the festival! She said he was her prince charming and that he was going to take her to the dance!"

"But she didn't dance with anybody."

"Exactly! He totally used her like a disposable napkin!"

"Gotta be! She definitely never met him again! She would be the type of girl to go for the whole 'wham, bam, thank you ma'am'!"

"I dunno, doesn't sound like her to me."

Ichika turned to the girl who might kill her momentum. She couldn't have that. Get one person second guessing and others might follow. She needed consensus to get the ball rolling downhill.

She sighed, "I've been wondering myself, I'd hate to think my sister was such a loose girl. But then again, I can't fight the facts. See, there was this other time just after finals. We'd all gone to our grandfather's hot springs for a break and Uesugi happened to be there as well. I know for a fact that she ambushed him in the mixed baths all alone, in nothing but a towel!"

She eyed the girl who dared to question her. She fidgeted nervously and said, "Well, maybe? I've just never seen her as the type, you know? And no one actually saw them, right? So maybe nothing happened at all, who knows?"

Ichika almost frowned. Why was she giving her all this trouble? But then she was saved by the last person she expected.

"I do," someone said. Ichika turned to the girl who would seal the deal for her.

Yumi, Nino's friend, spoke up, "She's definitely that type of girl, I'd know."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well I thought something was strange between them just after we transferred. Nino and I were already friends by then. One day we're walking through the hallway when Uesugi just starts saying all these super, super weird things to her. Stuff about not giving up what they had, and this and that about some night at her place during a festival, and how he was gonna teach her everything he knew."

"Eww! That sound so sketchy!"

"Right? We thought so too. But she got super red and slapped him for it, so I just through Uesugi was being a freak as usual. But then it turns out they've been together for, well who really knows? So Kari and I were with her yesterday and we asked her about how long she and Uesugi had been, you know, active, if you know what I mean."

"Oh! What'd she say?"

"Well, she wouldn't tell us how long, but she never denied it."

Ichika barely hid her grin, despite her training, this was too good to resist. It was going more perfectly than she could've imagined!

The table gave a collective shriek of vindication, "I knew it! She's a total cock slut!"

The girl who dared to doubt her story said, "Sounds like it, I mean I didn't know her that well to begin with, so..."

"And it wasn't just with Uesegi either. She gave it up so easily to a guy she just met, in the forest of all places!"

"Guess she likes it dirty."

"I thought I heard a wolf howling that night! Maybe it was her!"

"Awoooo! Awoooo!"

"And she only just transferred last year! She must've been spreading her legs for loads of guys at her old school!"

Ichika shrugged, "Well, hard to say, it's not like I'm her keeper."

"Oh god, I wonder how many guys she's done it with."

"Eww, now I'm picturing it! Disgusting!"

"I always thought she looked easy."

"I've seen her eyeing guys, should've known she was hungry for it."

"Poor Uesugi, he probably doesn't even know."

"To think we'd ever feel sorry for Uesugi."

They might, but Ichika didn't feel an ounce of pity for her former beloved. Or for Nino, either. They get what they deserve.

**A/N**

I need to start by telling you all how I was overwhelmed with the response last chapter. I'd been gone for so long, I hadn't expected so many people to pick it up again so quickly. The manga ended. Season 2 is far away. Fandoms fade over time. But then so many of you reached out and told me that yes, you're still there and have been waiting for the story to continue. It's hard to describe the joy and relief I felt, but I think it's familiar to anyone who writes here. This story means something to more than just myself. So I'm thankful to you, especially those who welcomed me back, and know that I intend to continue this story to its conclusion.

When I stopped writing, the story had not yet ended, and now it has. I want to address my own feelings on the conclusion and what I think does and does not work. Many felt disappointed with the ending, and I'm no exception, but not because Nino wasn't chosen or because Yotsuba was. It's multifaceted. Anyone could have been chosen by Futaro for the right reasons and the ending could have worked. The problem with Yotsuba is that, up until that point in the story, from a meta standpoint she was the only choice for selection (I mentioned this in a previous A/N, I believe). Hers was the only arc left without significant closure, and it needed Futaro. So going into the festival, I believed it would be her. But my main issue with her selection is that it ties in with fate.

The manga uses the idea of fate several times outside of their relationship, we see it with the dancing by the fire, the bell, and with their relationship meeting five years before. I understand that we are microscopic pieces in an uncaring universe, but I do not believe that I am bound by destiny, or that my life is set in fate. My life is not so important. It is mine by chance and mine to shape. But Negi shapes his story with fate as a core theme. The girl from before and the chance meeting are all part of that destiny. I went out of my way in this story to disregard the chance meeting from before, to the point where whether or not it was one of the sisters or a misshaped memory is up in the air. Yotsuba's story is entwined with the strings of fate, and her winning helps seal that. A story may be manufactured, and the author may be a designer of fate, but the story doesn't need to reflect that. It's a conscious decision to make something inevitable in the laws of the universe. As I reject fate, I cannot be happy with this ending on those grounds. If it were for another reason, I'd be more accepting.

And then there's how the sisters did not receive, in my view, satisfying conclusions of their own. What separates and makes this harem story superior is how the women are so closely linked. You cannot just cut out family, and seeing the consequences of love and heartbreak should be part of the core of the story. And though we see a definite shift to focus on Yotsuba near the end and some conflict with her family, I don't think there was enough there. I wanted more. But it just putters to the end, and I think that's in part to the author being tired. He's on record that writing a long series is more challenging than he thought. His early work is high quality and good storytelling, but I feel the latter half begins to lag, and he wraps up the story in a less than satisfying way than if he'd had the same momentum throughout. I still consider him a great writer, we wouldn't be so attached to the story and characters if he wasn't. But even great storytellers falter.

So now that we have an ending, I know what I want to do with my story: I want to write a better ending. It won't supplant the author or his work, but it'll take it in a new direction, and I believe provide a more satisfying conclusion for all characters. That's my goal. I have no idea if I will pull it off, we all hoped Negi would, but I do feel I'm up for that challenge and will provide excellent endings, and new beginnings, for all characters that fans, regardless of their favorite sister, can be happy with.

This is where the story stands. We're approaching the halfway point and will be on the tail end soon enough. Thank you to everyone who's reached this point with me and will continue reading to the end, or however far you see fit. Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to comment and review, and who's continued to encourage me to keep writing when my will grew weak. We've never met face to face, but I appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you cared and that the story meant something to you.

Chapter published: June 18th, 2020.


	24. Countdown

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 2****4**

**Countdown**

**_~Nino~_**

This ends today.

Here marked the one week anniversary of their sundering and Nino was sick of silence. This wasn't the first family feud, it wasn't even their longest. Her escapade during last year's finals took that unwanted honor, but their present bad blood will fester like an aggressive cancer unless something changed. The mock exams were three days away, and Nino was determined to face them with her family as one team.

It wouldn't be their first attempt to bridge the divide. Itsuki and Yotsuba had been reaching out in their own ways, but Miku and Ichika weren't willing to waste the breath it would take to dismiss them. Miku walked everywhere with her headphones fit snugly around her ears, and Ichika's fan club crowded her between bells like a suit of armor. Yotsuba's boundless enthusiasm and Itsuki's calm consideration were like throwing pillows against their absolute defenses. But this wasn't their responsibility. It was hers. She caused this with her secrets and mistrust, and hers was the hand that must reach out first.

"I'm going to talk to her," she said.

Futaro was leaning on the wall near a poster advertising a weekend movie marathon in the auditorium. He was checking their math textbook's appendix for heaven knows what. If those were the depths she'd have to descend in order to answer one specific question, she'd accept the red tick. He asked without looking away, "Miku, or Ichika?"

"Ichika."

Yotsuba said, "I don't know, how are you gonna get her alone?"

"Already thought of that. There's one time every day Ichika leaves her entourage behind. Right after lunch, she goes to the courtyard alone to call her agent. I don't know what they're talking about, but whatever it is, she won't let anyone overhear."

Itsuki asked, "How'd you figure that out."

"I didn't. Fuu did."

Futaro explained, "You're all still on the same phone plan, it was easy enough to get the logs from your account."

Itsuki said, "I don't like the idea of you looking at our call history, Futaro."

"Got something to hide?" Nino asked.

"Nothing worse than you."

"Point taken. Look, there she goes." She nodded as Ichika left the cafeteria and maneuvered through the halls with her loyal followers. She stopped and said something to them, then went on all by herself.

Nino said, "There's my chance, wish me luck!"

"Luck!" Yotsuba cheered.

She followed her sister down the stairs as the student number dwindled to nothing. Ichika changed shoes and headed into the courtyard. Nino scampered to her locker, still directly adjacent to Ichika's, and changed as quickly as she could to follow. Ichika was blissfully unaware on a call as Nino walked outside.

She didn't have a script, she barely had a plan. She approached life like a castle without blueprints, building brick by brick in whatever way made sense until she'd build something uniquely her own. She trusted her wit that when the moment came, she'd find the words.

"Ichika!" she called.

Ichika flinched and spun around. Her surprise might be her first authentic show of emotion that week. Then she smiled coyly as a cat with her prize. "Oh! It's you. I thought you might be another one looking for an autograph, it's been so annoying," then she held up her phone and said, "I'll have to call you back, something's come up. Yes, I'm alright, nothing to worry about. Yes, I'll let them know after class. Bye!"

Nino said, "Ichika, we-"

"Oh my god, I can't believe you actually kept them," Ichika exclaimed, pointing to her glasses, "I thought you threw those dreadful things away. Didn't we both agree they made your face look chubby like a newborn baby?"

She hadn't expected things to start well, but Ichika must know how low her blow was.

"Ichika, just listen to me, please. We need-"

"Is Uesugi around?" Ichika scanned the area as she approached her sister, "You two are practically attached at the hip, I can't picture either of you alone. I see you at lunch, at gym, under the stairs, and of course all over instagram. I had to unfriend you just to spare my feed, it was worse than the ads! Gosh, you'll be sharing an apartment soon enough!"

"Fuu isn't here, it's just you and me, and you made that a hell of a lot harder than it had to be."

"So no Itsuki? No Yotsuba?" She finished scanning the courtyard, strolling towards Nino with her hands laced behind her back like she was on parade. "Good, I like it better this way."

And then she changed, and whether it was acting or all natural, Nino didn't know, because she'd never seen Ichika so full of malice and hate.

"Fuck you."

Nino had felt words slap, stab, trample and wound. These were new, they gleefully strangled her into silence. Ichika's words froze the very air between them into an unbreakable wall. They would have been powerless coming from someone else; they would have washed over her like a breeze over a mountain. No one, not even Futaro, could wound her so deeply. But her sisters knew her every crack and crevice to drive the knife deep, and just how hard to twist to make her squirm. And though they'd fought before, as all siblings do, never had they been so cruel.

Ichika continued, "Was this your master plan? Get me all on my lonesome and patch things up? Do you think there is anything, anything, you can say to make things better? We're long past that now." She reached up to Nino's cheek as if to stroke it, and took it roughly in her fingers, pinching until Nino couldn't feel, "I don't have a care in the world for what you wanna say, not one."

Nino stood frozen, feeling how words can steal your voice. Ichika's fingers slid along her skin like scythes in a wheat field until Nino's cheek was caught in the vice of her fingernails, slicing deeply into her skin. Nino cried and slapped her hand away. She stared at Ichika, struck dumb and unable to think.

Ichika gently massaged her wrist. Her lips curled into the selfish smile, the kind lit from the fuel of another's pain. "Run back to your plaything, little sis. There's nothing left to talk about."

Ichika left her there, a smoldering fire pit snuffed out with a storm. It seems irrational that a mind would struggle to believe what it witnessed firsthand. But when the world you thought you knew so well is smashed by uncaring reality and reminds you that all you love is vulnerable and finite, the mind fights back. Sometimes the mind wins and lives on in fantasy, building crutches of justification out of hope. And sometimes it cedes to the world and must reshape itself, and what backbreaking work that can be. Nino couldn't pretend anymore. As she faced the truth of Ichika's private rage, she realized that Ichika wasn't just not ready to bridge their divide, she didn't want to, and that even their sisterhood, her most precious thing of all, was breakable. And in this case, broken, possibly beyond repair.

Nino cried in the courtyard. She hid herself under a tree out of sight of the open windows and the street. She took off her glasses and wiped her tears as they came, struggling in vain to spare her makeup from ruin. She cried to all those things that may be lost forever and the memories they may never make. She wept at the legacy of her mother, imagining her spirit watching from beyond in disappointment at her daughters, and most of all at her, the one she could never fully fix. And she wondered, not for the first time, if all this was worth it, and if they could still be together if only she'd done something different.

By the time her tears dried, she wondered if she'd been missed. She checked her phone and found that fifteen minutes had passed since she left Futaro and the others. They'd be worried about her soon. She switched to the camera to check her makeup for tear streaks. That's when she saw the mark.

Ichika's fingernails had driven into her cheek, almost breaking the flesh, and her skin was raw and hurting. Her other pain had been so great that she hadn't felt it before, but now she noticed the throbbing heat like an egg trying to hatch. She took her makeup kit from her purse and covered up the wound as best she could. She had to use more makeup than she normally would to get it done, and by then she looked unnatural, more painting than accentuation, but it had to be done. She finished with a hint of blush to balance out what color she couldn't hide and returned to school.

Something was off as she walked through the halls. People were staring, even pointing as subtly as they could as she passed. Nino had the paranoid thought that everyone knew exactly what had happened. But she'd been careful, no one had been around to see her. She'd made sure of it. She checked her makeup in her camera and thought it hid things well enough. She endured their uncomfortable attention all the way back to the others. She wondered if her makeup was that noticeable, or if Ichika's speculation on her glasses was more widespread than she thought. She felt relieved when she returned. Itsuki and Yotsuba were waiting patiently for her, with Yotsuba bouncing melodically on the balls of her toes. Futaro was gone.

"How'd it go?" Itsuki asked.

Nino couldn't tell them what happened. She didn't know how. And to say it out loud was yet too much for her to bear. She simply shook her head.

Yotsuba smiled sadly, "We thought so."

"Why's that?"

"We saw Ichika a while ago, and when you didn't follow, we kinda assumed."

Itsuki said, "Maybe she just needs more time."

"Are you alright?" Yotsuba asked, "We were getting worried, we thought you'd be back after we saw her."

Nino couldn't respond to that properly, not without revealing everything that happened. Instead she asked, "Fine, just dealing with it. Where's Futaro?"

Yotsuba glanced out the window, "He should be...there!" She pointed near the track as Futaro walked into view.

"What's he doing outside?"

Yotsuba moved her finger to the vending machine near the restroom. There she saw Miku squatting to pick up her drink. Nino said, "Oh no."

Yotsuba said, "Hey, maybe it'll work! Can't hurt to try."

Nino was now certain that it could. If Ichika had hidden her feelings, could Miku? But she wouldn't hide her feelings by playing pretend, instead she'd draw them deeply into herself, compressing her anger until, with just the right trigger, she would explode like a long forgotten land mine from a war no one outside a nursing home remembered.

But that didn't happen. Nino watched Futaro call to Miku, saw her glance his way silently, and watched him struggle to make amends. He waved his arms like a struggling stage hand as he said whatever he'd planned to say. When he was done, Miku walked away without even the smallest goodbye. Futaro looked like he wanted to pursue her, like his body was halfway between motion and stillness. Instead he turned back to school like a lonely ranger returning from patrol.

When Futaro returned, he looked at her and said, "Ah, how'd it go?"

"Same as you."

"Oh, you saw that?"

"Yeah, what the hell? I told you I was gonna talk with her first, why'd you go and do that?"

It wasn't often she saw Futaro embarrassed. Flustered, certainly, but never so abashed as if she'd caught him looking at his porn stash, if his phone could even load a jpeg, though she doubted Futaro looked at porn in the first place. The closest he'd come to women's anatomy had to be from a textbook.

But Nino felt she understood why he felt this way. Miku has been Futaro's shadow, the earliest to fully take his side as their tutor. Perhaps he saw a bit of himself in her, an underachiever changing towards academic success. He didn't want to believe he'd so completely misunderstood her, and that this was all a game of affection. He might wonder, if that's all this was, did he really know Miku at all?

Nino didn't force him to answer, "Forget it, it doesn't matter anymore. I'll try talking to her tomorrow, maybe she'll listen to me."

With nothing left to be done, she led them back to class to finish the rest of their day. Each side ignored the other and went about their business. Futaro led their study session after class at the library before joining Takeda at the cafe. Nino continued her night with her sisters as if nothing so horrible had happened today. They went home, made dinner, finished their assignments and followed Futaro's study guide until long after the sun sank behind the city skyline and their endurance ran thin. Sometimes she forgot the burning in her cheek, sometimes it was too strong to ignore. It wanted to pulse and flare and make itself known like a tracer round lighting up the enemy line.

If there were a way to avoid confronting Ichika's wound, she would have given what money she had left in exchange. But unless she wanted to sleep with her makeup, she was out of options. Her skin was dry and her eyes were itching and her skin needed a good rinse. She took a deep breath and washed her face clean, coming up to survey the damage. A small part of her cheek looked like a heat map, and the part where Ichika's nails dug deep was dark as dried blood. She unconsciously rubbed it as if that would wipe it free. When it didn't, she knew she had to face her sisters and their questions.

Itsuki was the first to see her when she stepped out from the bathroom. She did a double take when the first look wasn't credible. "Nino! What happened to you?"

She shielded herself with her arms as Yotsuba and Itsuki crowded close to her wound like a crowd at the Mona Lisa. Nino wouldn't tell her sisters what Ichika said, for it was too cruel to repeat. She only told them about Ichika squeezing her cheek until it hurt. She felt guilty, as if she were betraying Ichika's privacy.

Yotsuba said, "Maybe, I mean she can't have meant to hurt you, right? She would never hurt you on purpose! Accidents happen sometimes, I'm sure she just didn't know her own strength. It happens to me all the time, like sometimes I'll pat someone on the back for doing a wonderful job and they'll stumble forward like I hit them with a baseball bat! Mom used to pinch our cheeks super hard and they'd get all rosy, remember? She was probably trying to imitate mom or something and went a little too far. I'm sure she never meant to leave a mark!"

It was beyond what Yotsuba to comprehend. She saw too much of the good in her family to accept the bad as anything more than a single broken frame in the overall film. Nino envied her sister's stubborn innocence, Yotsuba's faith in her sisters was stronger than even her own. Nino wouldn't take that away from her. Even if she herself wasn't still clinging to hope that they'd all be together again someday, it would be too much to rob Yotsuba of the same.

But Itsuki wasn't blind. She saw the wound for the warning light it was. When Yotsuba meandered to the bathroom for her evening scrub, Itsuki took Nino and hugged her tightly.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Nino shook her head, "Trying."

"We'll get through this."

"Yeah."

The three bundled themselves up for bed. Yotsuba's soft snoring echoed in Nino's ears like a feather tickling her brain. She brought her hand to her cheek and felt the slight bump in her skin. Itsuki reached out and took her hand. She held it softly and brought it to her chest.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?"

But Itsuki wouldn't respond, she just held her hand until she fell asleep.

**_~Ichika~_**

"Just a towel!?"

"Yeah, nothing under but her birthday suit. That's how we found them."

"And he was definitely pinning her down?"

"I'll never forget it. And this was less than a week after we all met."

"And what'd they say?"

"They made some excuse about him coming up for his wallet, and her not recognizing him without her contacts."

"But what about how they ended up on the floor?"

"He claims he protected her from something falling from the cupboard."

"Oh my god, that's the worst excuse I've ever heard! They couldn't even make it to her bedroom, the pervs!"

**_~Nino~_**

The next day her wound was still there. It had darkened like someone had rounded out the edges with purple marker overnight. She layered her makeup extra thick to hide it once again. Her face looked waxy with so much product blanketing her skin. She felt like she was eleven again, the day after discovering what foundation was. But any less and everyone would see it like a lighthouse against the clear night sky.

Futaro asked about it as soon as she arrived. At least he kept his voice down, she taught him that much their first day in public. "You look different."

"It's just that, something different," Nino said. She didn't want him knowing about the mark or who was responsible. If Futaro found out, well, maybe she'd like what he might do if it were anyone else. Some things had to be kept in the family.

And bless him, Futaro let her keep it that way. He quickly returned to his latest study guide, he'd been browsing up to a half dozen a day. She had asked him how he'd gotten his hands on so many study guides when everyone and their mothers, literally, was trying to get their hands on them at the last minute. He bragged how he'd made reservations with the library two months in advance to make sure they'd be ready for him at crunch time. Everyone was looking for a free, easy study method. Leave it to Futaro to have that field cornered like a CEO maximizing their returns with insider trading.

She heard the chatter before they came through the door. She eyed Ichika and her retinue as they barely avoided the bell. Her eldest didn't seem to notice her staring, but she couldn't trust what seemed to be with Ichika anymore. Her cheek flared with remembered pain and she touched it gently. Ichika laughed at something a tall boy said as he held her chair out for her.

Nino pushed Ichika out of her mind and focused on their lessons as the bell rang. The mock exams were two days away and all their teachers made it their mission to make sure their subjects had a one hundred percent pass rate. Nino wondered if the teachers were aware of how many assignments their associates were giving, or if theirs was a joint effort to drown their students in prep work. As they reviewed, she tried recalling her progress at the time of her transfer and marked each question she worked through that she could never have tackled before Futaro. Such a small thing as counting her footsteps helped her see how far she'd climbed.

But every break her focus shifted, and not just to Futaro. Each period she'd get up to chat with Futaro and keep Miku in her periphery. She kept her headphones fastened around her ears every second of every break, and even if she didn't, Nino couldn't say what she wanted to with so many people. But Miku was human, not a golem, she had to get up eventually. At some point she'd need a bathroom break or a trip to the vending machine. She waited like a leopard in the jungle for her prey to show her back.

The bell rang and third period came to an end. Miku slid on her headphones and closed her book. Then she got up and walked out the door.

Futaro followed her with his eyes and asked, "Is this it, then?"

"Yup. If Ichika tries to follow-"

"Bother her. Got it."

Nino was out the door and on Miku's trail before Ichika could notice through her throng of admirers. She saw Miku at the end of the hall. Left for vending machine, right for restroom. She'd hoped she'd head for the vending machine where there'd be much more space for privacy. But she turned right. Nino cursed and quickened her pace. As she rounded the corner and weaved through the crowd, she called, "Miku!"

Those headphones were noise canceling, and though she couldn't check the little light on the side, she guessed they were on. She stormed closer and grasped Miku's wrist, "Stop."

Miku startled and yanked her arm free. It's what any girl would have done. Idly relenting when a stranger wrestled control of your wrist was a great way of becoming a crime statistic. She spun around and saw Nino, she stopped and took a deep breath, "What the hell?"

"Miku, I need to talk-"

Miku held up her hand, then took off her headphones, "What?"

Nino took a deep breath, "Can you give me a minute?"

"I need to use the bathroom."

"One minute, that's it."

Miku looked at, or through her with heavy eyes. Nino wondered if she'd been getting enough sleep. Miku sighed, "I'm not getting out of this, am I?"

No, she wasn't, Nino wouldn't surrender until the sun set in the East or the oceans rained into the sky. Nino would come for her again and again until she finally got through. She led Miku to the window out of everyone's way. There, that was progress. More than Ichika, anyways. Now she just had to find the words. It all seemed so possible.

"Look, I know what you're thinking. I admit it, I really screwed up, I should've told you about what was happening from the start."

"I'm not thinking that at all."

Nino hesitated, "You're, not?"

Miku shook her head, "You don't have to apologize. If that's what this is about-"

"No! No, that's not all. Yes, I wanted to say I'm sorry, but more than that, I really needed to talk with you again."

"About what?"

"About everything! This is weird, don't you think? We've barely spoken a word to each other for a week! That's never happened before, not since Yotsuba broke her leg tripping on a tree root in eight grade and had to stay overnight at the hospital! Don't you want things to go back to normal?"

"Things aren't normal anymore." Miku said, exhaustion wringing her voice like a wet towel.

"But they can be! If we let it, everything can be alright, just like before! I know that it's different between me and Fuu, but-"

"Don't call him that!"

Nino's words were bifurcated with Miku's shout. Miku blinked, standing as rigid as Lot's wife as she turned to salt. This was the only time Miku's glare made Nino wilt, it seethed like crawling over hot embers. Miku blinked, looking aside and huffed. "I made that nickname," she nodded, quietly assuring herself, "I made it." She glared at Nino, but there was no anger, that died as quickly as a cheap firework, and in its place there was a sweltering sadness and melancholy as old as their mother's passing, one that fed and grew stronger on her latest despair. And Nino could see her silent blame, the one she would never say out loud for fear of making it real. What Miku had dared to hope for, Nino took. And Miku couldn't even be mad with her.

Miku sighed, "Look, I'm not angry with you. I'm not. But I don't wanna talk with you anymore, okay?"

Miku left her there, and Nino didn't have the will to follow. Ichika's rejection had been a solid oak door slamming in her face. Miku's was like passing through curtains and finding an empty room with no more doors, no windows and no light. Miku's denial stung deeper than Ichika's pinch that she still felt burning her cheek. Nino understood why Ichika was mad. She understood her anger and her frustration and her jealousy like reading a script. But she hadn't understood Miku. She thought she'd always connected with her family. That was their bond, their shared sisterhood that no one could imitate or replace. When had she become so blind? And how could she hope to fix what she couldn't even comprehend? Was she was chasing a mirage in the desert? She felt like she'd failed Miku and her family, and that was worse than any blow they could have given her.

She carried it like a clot in her heart back to class. As she passed through the halls, she saw the same stares and amusement shot her way. She saw a girl little enough to pass as a middle schooler shielded in her boyfriend's shadow. She whispered something to him and pointed at her in a manner she must have considered inconspicuous. He glanced her way, eyed her up and down like meat at a butcher shop, and chuckled with her. Nino shot them an icy glare as she passed, letting them know perfectly well that she saw and didn't give a shit. Like Ichika, it was an act. She felt worms crawling under her skin that he couldn't claw out.

One boy and one girl, she could brush that aside. But it was one after another after another until her eyes strained from staring back. What the hell was going on? Why was everyone checking her out like she just got back from a circus tour as the bearded lady? She wanted to snatch someone's collar and demand an explanation for all this rubber-necking nonsense. But she was tired enough without this new wildcard in her life. So screw them. Let them look all they like, they were just glasses. She had a dozen problems a hundred times more important than these assholes.

But unwanted attention was like a spotlight following you around the prison yard. Their memory lingered long after class was dismissed. And the absolute normalcy of the rest of her life was too much contrast to ignore. She reported to work for her shift as an executive trainer, which she found out was just a fancy title for kitchen supervisor, all training would be on the job. She wondered if people would treat her differently like her classmates. But no one did. She was still Nakano, just with a fancier title.

What was different? School wasn't some fairy-tale kingdom with its own set of rules. She stepped through a concrete gate into a big boring building, not some wardrobe to Narnia. So why did her schoolmates treat her so differently? Her coworkers were about the same age, half were students themselves scrounging for extra pocket money. But they didn't stare or wonder at her glasses. They'd all just politely congratulated her on her promotion and moved on. No one even mentioned her glasses anymore. What the hell was happening?

Unless, was it something else they noticed? But this all started when she started wearing glasses, it wasn't even this strange after she came out with Futaro. Nothing else had changed! So what was it that made her classmates act like she was in between skin grafts for a full-body third degree burn?

"Oi, Nakano. You good?"

"Huh?" Nino looked up.

The manager pointed to the batter, "Haven't you stirred it enough?"

She checked, it was smooth as the calmest ocean without a white cap in sight. "Yeah, of course. Just about to put it in the oven."

"Uh-huh." She wished he would let it go, but he noticed his eyes glancing her way for the rest of her shift.

She dusted herself off at the end of her work day and changed out of her uniform. Then she waited in a booth as Futaro bore the burden of closing. His punishment for absconding with the bike was on its final week, but Nino suspected he'd continue his unfair share of closings. Their boss was a man of habit, once something became custom, he kept it until he had reason to change. Nino tried to study while she waited, and to her credit she made more progress than her scattered mind could have expected. The urgency of the exams helped her push other worries aside, at least when she was struggling with a textbook.

Futaro shut the broom closet and sighed like a bulging pipe, it was like the whistle marking closing time at a factory. He emerged minutes later in his school uniform. She asked, "Ready to go?"

Futaro grumbled and they left together. The night air was dark and hugged them like a heavy blanket. Nino wished they could have had a little time under the sun. She could have settled for an evening out, though. She loved walking under the stars and feeling his hand held firmly in hers like it naturally belonged there. But it was so late, and they still had so much study planned. Was it too much to ask for a few moments of peace?

Futaro asked, "Nino, I need to tell you something."

"What?"

"Just something that happened today. I don't really get it, but it's something you'll wanna know."

"So go on and tell me."

"I'm not sure how."

Nino blinked. Since when did Futaro admit to not knowing something? "Is it something bad?"

"Kind of? I don't know, I'm still trying to make sense of it. Just promise you won't get mad, okay?"

"You know I'm ready to get mad now, right?"

"That's why I'm asking-"

"I'll decide when to get angry, Fuu-"

_I made that nickname._

Futaro squeezed her hand, "Nino?"

She shook off the memory, "Look, just, just say it, Futaro. I won't get mad. I promise."

Futaro nodded, "A couple guys from the neighboring classroom visited me when you went after Miku. They wanted to know if we were really a thing. I asked why they cared and told them to get back to class, but they wouldn't leave until I gave them an answer. So I said we were, hoping they'd leave me alone. Then, this is where it gets stranger, they congratulated me and said they didn't think I had it in me."

"Why?"

"I dunno, they just gave me this look. It was like, this weird smirk, like we were sharing a secret."

"Well? Were you?"

"If they were, I wasn't in on it. The whole school is going crazy, and they're not even losing it over the mock exams like they should be."

Nino sighed, "Is that all?"

"Yeah. You're not mad?"

"Why? The guy got the girl, they probably wanna congratulate one of their own. Sounds like a stupid macho thing."

"Well I didn't get it."

"You're not macho. Don't give me that look, I didn't fall in love with you because you can bench press my body weight. It's just boys being big, dunderheaded boys."

"Doesn't feel that way to me. I think it has something to do with how everyone's treating you all of a sudden."

Nino startled, "You noticed."

"How couldn't I? They're eyeing your every step like hungry jackels on the savanna and I hate it. Sure, we might look like an unlikely couple, but they're looking at you like you have a mental disorder for dating me. It's pissing me off." His free hand drifted to his gut, he pressed on it like a medic covering a combat wound and scowled.

Nino laughed. She'd shouldered all the stares and discomfort as her own personal burden, just like the pressure of reconnecting her family. But hearing Futaro express it, knowing he noticed at all, and cared, it almost took it all away. God, she loved him. She hoped he never changed.

She hung onto his arm and said softly, "Forget them, they're not worth it."

"It doesn't bother you?"

"Of course it does, but I don't care what they think. I don't even think this was about us dating, I think it's because of my glasses."

Futaro said dumbly, "Glasses? Just glasses?"

"Yup. So don't worry about them, okay? I don't wanna think about them anymore."

Futaro paused to think whatever big-brain thoughts he had to think, before saying, "Alright, fine. We'll do that."

Her hand looped around his bicep, rubbing it up to his sleeve, "We have to study, right?"

"Tonight? Yeah," he mused, "You wanna do something else?"

She shook her head, "Not now. But can we plan something for after the exams?"

"Thursday? We have work."

"Yeah, but we have an hour between class and shift. We can do something on the way, just the two of us. It'd be nice to get out in the sun."

Futaro mused, "Ah, I don't see why not. What did you have in mind?"

"You think of something."

"Why me?"

"Because," she pouted.

Futaro scratched his nose, "Okay, well then, uh...how 'bout I make it a surprise?"

He was clueless. Whatever. She could wait. She shot him her million-yen smile and said, "Sounds good!"

They walked past several streetlights in silence. Nino realized how close they were when Futaro's free arm moved from his stomach to touched her hair, "Nino?"

"Hmm?" she looked up.

Futaro looked for something far off in the distance, then said, "It's nothing."

"Come on, what?"

"Just, I wonder what it'll be like once the exams are over. If things will go back to normal. I wonder what that'll be like."

"What's that?"

"Being an ordinary couple."

Ordinary? What did ordinary even look like for them? When all the cramming and pressure finally lessened and they could settle into school as a normal couple, without the atmosphere as welcoming as acid, Nino wondered what being another pair in the crowd would be like. She wondered if Ichika and Miku would be there. Eventually.

"Me too," she said.

They rounded the corner and walked along the river to her home. She guessed it was twenty meters before they arrived. It sounded so small. She wanted a bigger number. More meters, more seconds alone! Why hadn't they chosen a house farther away?

"Futaro?"

"What?"

"I don't wanna go up yet."

He mused, "Well, got something in mind?"

She didn't, but that was part of the fun of it. She grinned wickedly and pulled Futaro behind the wall shielding her home from the street. There was a little alcove where people stored their recycling. Hardly the most romantic of spaces, but she worked with what she had. It was small, it was private, it was enough.

She tapped a song on her phone and let it play, then set it down on a stack of old newspapers. Futaro recognized it, "This is that band we saw, right?"

"Good ear." She started moving her body to the beat. Nothing wild, just a rhythm flowing through her like a wave in the sea as she danced closer to Futaro. "Notice anything else?"

Futaro grinned, "Same song, too."

"You remember. Good boy."

"Trying to tell me something?"

"Maybe."

Futaro stepped closer, but Nino danced away, wagging her finger, "Ah ah ah, not like that."

He frowned, "Seriously?"

"Get with the beat, smart guy."

He tried to get closer again, the wrong way, and she hopped back on her tiptoes like a prima donna on opening night. "Come on, you know what to do."

"I really don't."

"That's part of the fun!"

She grinned. She saw that hunger in his eyes, he hated the air between them like a barbed wire fence. And she wanted him to come to her, but he had to do it right.

He brought his hands up and bounced a little. She suspected he may have skimmed a book on dancing, but words could only build so much picture. He was still stiff, moving his feet in baby steps and struggling to keep the rhythm. Nino still thought it was cute. He'd only move like this for her, no one else. Futaro moved his feet closer to her. Nino waited, spinning with the music in her ear and forgetting all the problems of the day. He took her in his arms and he felt so warm.

"I think there was more to it," Futaro said.

"I think you're right, we're definitely missing something."

Futaro grinned knowingly, "Come on, I came this far."

"So come a little bit closer."

"You should do your part."

Nino touched her cheek and let her eyes glow big with wonder, "That's not how I remember it going. We should get it right."

Futaro growled like a tiger and damn was it hot, "Fine," and kissed her. His lips were warm and wet against the evening chill and she wanted all she could get. His kiss was like a luxury dessert after a day of hard bread and stale cheese. These were the kisses that inspired songs, the kind that couples long out of love longed to rediscover. Sounds of sucking and smacking could never sound sexier than in the heat of two dueling lips. She looped her arms around his shoulders and felt his grab her waist like a life ring, smashing them together like a perfect weld. She thought that if he never let go, she could spend the rest of her life happy like this.

She barely noticed when his hand dropped, his fingers stretching for more to touch like shadows stretching at sunset. The second time she felt it like a tick, and the third she started getting suspicious. He had to know where his hand was, right? She guessed it was okay, it was still above the border she considered safe-okay now that's a little far. His fingers were climbing the curve of her jeans and that had to be intentional, right? His hand kept sliding lower, lower, too low, way too low! Red light! Red light! All hands abandon ship!

She broke the kiss and pushed back, waving her hands, "Whoa! Okay, let's pull it back!"

Futaro blinked, not entirely sure what happened, but the thought caught up with him and he covered his face in shame, "Oh, wow. I'm so-"

"No, no, no need for that. Just, okay, let's take a break." She spun around and held her cheeks, they were as warm as a furnace and she knew she must be shining like a dying star.

Futaro muttered, "Sorry about that, I, that was too far."

Nino turned to him, still holding her cheeks, "I'll say," she started, then laughed. If there was any lingering doubt what his type was, he crossed it out when he crossed the lip of her jeans in pursuit of more fruitful territory.

Futaro glanced at the ground and asked, "Are you mad?"

She wasn't, surprisingly. Definitely stunned, but more in disbelief than violation. She'd been teasing him all week with skinny jeans she'd bought on sale, the kind that wrapped her lower body in a comfy cocoon and letting her curves show their worth. They were the perfect bait to catch his eye hook, line and sinker. It was all meant to be in good fun, she hadn't actually thought he'd make a move. But he had, and again, only for her.

Nino jumped in front of him, bending forward to look up at his face "Hey, look at me?" Futaro reluctantly looked her in the eye. She took his hands and opened them up, stepping into them for a hug. She felt his hands close around her, much higher this time. "It's alright. I'm just, that's too far right now. Okay? Can we not do that again?"

"Yeah, I'll be more careful. Again, sorry."

"Good, now stop saying it. It isn't hot." She pulled him closer and said, "You can go lower, you know. Just not that low."

"Right," Futaro said, but didn't lower his hands. Nino sighed and forced his arms to hold the small of her back.

"There, see? That's fine." Nino leaned into his chest and whispered, "I'll tell you if I feel okay with any lower, okay?"

"Got it."

"I'm not upset! I want that clear! I'm just, I'm not comfortable with that. Not yet, okay?"

"Nino, it's alright," he said, relaxing into her, "I went too far."

But she didn't want to push him away. He was one of the few people still firmly on her side, she didn't want to risk losing him because she wasn't giving him what he wanted. But that, what he wanted, wasn't something she was ready for. It was too intense, like staring into the sun.

"Are we okay?" she asked.

"I'm the one who should be asking that."

"Well I'm not angry. Are you?" She looked at him expectantly.

"Why would I be upset?" Nino wasn't sure how to say it, but Futaro looked like he understood, "I don't think, I mean I'm the one who tried to, you know."

"Grope me? You can say it out loud, you know."

"Yeah, that, so I don't get why you're asking me that."

"Does it matter?" She leaned in closer, whispering against his ear, "Futaro, you better not tell a soul what I'm gonna tell you. The truth is, I don't mind knowing knowing what you want from me. I kinda like it. I'm just not ready for that stuff now," she paused, "But maybe someday. If you're lucky."

She kissed his earlobe and pulled back. She might have broken Futaro's brain. He appeared to be going through a hard reset, unable to respond.

Nino smiled slightly, "You're blushing."

"So are you," he finally said.

"Yeah," she said, then grabbed his neck, "Now stop looking like that and get back to kissing me." She pulled him closer and locked lips. She had to pull his energy out of him and banish his hesitation like an exorcist in a crappy B-movie, but she got him back. They lost themselves in their good feelings and physical love long enough to forget the time. When she pulled away, she leaned into him, resting on his chest, "I love you, Futaro."

"I love you too."

The song had long since changed into another they'd never heard together. They held each other, enjoying the new comfort they'd found. Futaro tilted his head to rest on hers and she felt his weight like sinking into a hot spring.

Suddenly he said, "I know what we'll do."

"What?"

"After the exams, I thought of it."

"Well what is it?"

"It's still a surprise."

She scowled, "Now you're being mean."

"I think you'll be glad you waited." Futaro leaned in and kissed her forehead. She really liked his forehead kisses.

"I like forehead kisses. Gimme more later."

"Good to know," he did it again, "Ready to go in?"

"No," Nino whispered. She wanted to enjoy their privacy a little longer. "But let's go anyways." She took his hand and led her inside, where her sisters were waiting, ready to study.

**_~Ichika~_**

"Lemme get this straight: Uesugi's in the bath, your bath, in your home, and she just walks right on in like she's a stripper at a bachelor's party and shuts the door?"

"That's right, right before midterms last year."

"And he's like, fully naked, no clothes, bath time?"

"Yup. I can't remember how long they were alone. Could've been quite a while."

"Long enough for whatever she had in mind, I'm sure. I'm not even surprised anymore. She's a freak. I'd hate to see what else she gets off to."

**_~Nino~_**

She awoke the next morning in better spirits. Nino took failure like slipping on ice. It stung her body and her pride, but it never kept her down. She settled into a comfortable routine. She practiced yoga, prepped breakfast, and applied makeup like the last two days never happened. Her sisters weren't ready to reconcile, she would have to live with that. She'd deal with it once the exams were done. Life could move on after tomorrow.

She walked with her sisters to school, stopping at a convenience store on the way. Itsuki bought them iced mochas to start their day. They opened them outside the store, clinked glasses and enjoyed them the rest of the way. Futaro was waiting for them outside the gates. Nino wouldn't let him inside before he sipped from her glass.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"Too much sugar."

"Is there?"

"Did you look at the ingredients?"

She checked it and knew she'd never buy one again.

"Why does everything delicious have to be so bad for you?" Nino wined.

Itsuki shrugged, "If every little treat was a roll of the dice, we'd be long dead. What's life if we can't live a little?"

Futaro said, "It's not the one, it's the one that keeps coming after. The human body is thinks were all hunter-gatherers in the savanna. It can't process so much-"

Yotsuba asked, "Futaro, is this gonna be on the exams?"

"Not likely, no."

"Then can we skip it?"

"I...guess?"

"Hooray!"

Futaro grumbled, "Is that all I'm allowed to talk about until tomorrow?"

Nino leaned in close, "Just stop speaking in statistics," she pecked his cheek as they walked in to class.

Sometimes you step into a room and know something is off. You can't say what, but some sense beyond the five tells you that something is about to jump. She expected the stares, they'd followed her more closely than she wanted to know since she abandoned her contacts. But this was different. Voices hushed at her entrance and they looked at her like an actress stepping onto stage. It was a step beyond the attention she expected. Everyone was on edge, like hostages staring down a gun and waiting for the trigger pull.

She felt a spotlight burning her steps. Itsuki uttered something quietly that she didn't catch. She kept herself stiff like an unbreakable wall, letting their curiosity smash off her like squash balls falling pathetically to the floor. She'd forget them with her sisters until the exams were done. She arrived at her desk and set her bag-

Slut.

The word greeted her eyes like a sparkler going off under her face. It was scrawled in ruby red lipstick across her desk. But there was more. She read whore, then tramp, fuckbunny, cock sucker, sausage wallet, cum dumpster and more. She read slurs that she'd never even seen before. She could guess what they meant.

"Oh my god!" Itsuki cried. Yotsuba shrieked like nails on a chalkboard. Futaro was quiet, but he was there. His silence was a black hole.

There was something on her chair, like a bundle of thick noodles. Several unrolled condoms were nestled in a pile. They had something gooey inside.

She heard laughter bubbling around the room like a busy sink with dirty dishes.

Nino breathed deeply through her nose and held her head up high. She wouldn't look at them, or she would lose. She wouldn't show them.

She took another long, deep breath. Something inside her was breaking. She couldn't show them.

She turned and ran from the room.

**A/N**

Over the next several chapters we will see some of these characters at their worst, and others at their best, and both, and everywhere in between. I don't think this makes them bad people, it makes them people. We've all overreacted, we've all been hurt and think that what we've done after is justified. For anyone who's been hurt by love or rejection, you know how deeply it wounds. And when you feel betrayed by someone you love, you might do something that feels right in the moment, only to look back and realize how horrible you really were to someone you cared for.

That's what I think Ichika is going through. I've received many comments directed at her and her actions, and I want people to understand her perspective here. She's gotten so much of what she wants out of life. She's used to being first among her family, she launched an acting and modeling career before finishing high school, and so far she's found success. I think she's used to sitting comfortably at the top and having her sisters respect her decrees. So while some may think her actions lately are out of character, I'd say yes, they are, but this isn't the same Ichika anymore. This is an evolution, the next step in growing up and realizing her faults. Love and rejection changes people. And part of the process is moving on. She's just not there yet. When she is, she'll have to look back at the path and see the damage she wrought.

I want to address the topic of sex in this story. In my view, a story that dances around sex is failing to capture one of the core elements to a relationship. Unless characters are asexual, these years are prime for discovering your likes, your limits, and what you want in a partner. It's fundamental and I cannot write this love story without bringing sexuality into the mix. So be prepared. I don't intend to write titillation, but real struggles and discoveries that these people (and not necessarily just Futaro and Nino) go through. If that's too much for your tastes, then this story may not be for you. If you can accept that, you'll be in for what I hope is authentic relationship development and self-discovery.

Coming back from my hiatus has been a joy. I've written to many who have supported this story since I was writing early chapters, and it means a lot to me knowing that so many are still engaged. I take pleasure writing for myself and to realize this story for me, but it means a lot to me that you and others have found that yourself, and are part of this. Thank you for voicing your appreciation and support, and know that it's been a great comfort to me as I write.

In regards to the fandom, I've largely limited myself to fanfics. I browse the subreddit occasionally, but I mainly stick with my story. I do want to take some time to highlight a few other fanfics within the fandom I believe anyone still invested in the fandom will enjoy. Moonlight by StarCatTibalt is a promising take on a Nino route following Futaro's confession to Yotsuba that is still in the early stages. I also enjoyed The Middle Child by for a character dive into Miku. There are a few others I intend to check as I can, and if anyone has any recommendations, please share them with me.

I've already begun work on the next chapter and hope to have that polished soon. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review and share their experience with the story, it is one of the greatest gifts I've received. If you're reading this, I'd ask you to share your thoughts as well and consider reviewing, it's how I most appreciate knowing you're enjoying the story.

Chapter published: July 2nd, 2020.


	25. Detective Work

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 2****5**

**Detective Work**

_**~Ichika~**_

"Nino!"

She didn't run, she escaped through the door like air sucked through a breach in a space station. She threw the door closed behind her like a child slamming shut her toy chest, locking all her friends inside. Uesugi almost crashed into the door as he tried to follow, with Itsuki close behind. He muttered something to himself and opened it again, and amid the rumbling laughter and jeers from the class the two left hot on Nino's trail.

Ichika hid her delicate laughter in her hand, a whispered secret in her little world.

Yotsuba's head swiveled like a lost child searching for mommy. She was always terrible with split-second decisions. Oh lord, was she actually whimpering? She looked so pathetic! She couldn't decide whether to follow or stay with the class! Come now, class rep. You wanted the job, now take responsibility. You're all that's left now that your partner abandoned his duty. He is a flaky one, isn't he? But then again, you chose him, didn't you? I guess that's your fault as well.

Yotsuba paused, breathed in the remnants of her courage, and nodded to herself. She sprinted to the front of the room and faced the class, putting on a brave face that reminded Ichika of a spoiled child demanding money for the candy shop.

"A-alright! Listen up, everyone! What this is, I mean whoever did this, everyone has to know that this is really not okay!"

Ichika mused how class consensus was against poor Yotsuba. Please, dear sister, don't die on this hill. You still have so much potential.

Yotsuba flailed her arms around like a peacock desperate for attention, "We should never, never ever treat a classmate like this! I don't know why someone would say such mean things, but they definitely aren't true! Someone is making up lies and slander and I think, I think that whoever had a part in this needs to say so! Say so, and apologize! That's the only way this is gonna get better!"

Ichika could hardly believe it, she actually waited for someone to speak up! She scanned the room like a security camera, meeting every student's eye, pleading silently with them to take her moral high ground.

She said, "Anyone? Anyone at all?"

One of the girls near Ichika fidgeted uncomfortably. She shot her a glare from the corner of her eye, it was like a ray of scorching heat that welded the girl's mouth shut. Whatever she might have known, it stayed behind her thin, glossy lips. No one else dared to tattle.

"Come on guys, someone's really hurting now. This is only gonna get better if someone says they're sorry."

Ichika gazed out the window and smiled. It was such a lovely day.

"Alright class, settle down."

Ichika turned as their teacher walked in. Takeda followed. They must have been chatting before class, not that Ichika cared to wonder about what. A teacher's pet would always be at his master's heel.

"Nakano, what are you doing?"

Yotsuba shrank as if she were guilty of a crime, "Ah, teacher, I was just, you see-"

"Speak straight, we don't have time to waste. Lots to learn before tomorrow."

She couldn't say it out loud. She could circle the subject like rings around a bullseye drawing attention, but she couldn't pin it with language, it was no wonder her scores were the lowest of the low. She simply pointed a shaking finger at Nino's desk like a toddler telling mama who stole her cookie.

Their teacher roughly set his books at his desk and went to investigate. His eyes lit up halfway there as he noticed the marks. No student was brave enough to shatter the silence when he reached the vandalized desk. His hand held up his chin as he examined the desk like a piece of abstract art. He read every word, counted every condom, and thought whatever his aging brain could manage.

Silence drew on for half a minute, feeling like twenty, when he said, "Nakano, where is this student now?"

Yotsuba blubbered, "T-teacher?"

"Did she see this?"

"Y-yes, teacher."

"And where is she now?"

"I don't know. But! But class representative Uesugi and Itsuki Nakano followed her when she left!"

"How long ago was this?"

"Um, a few minutes?"

"Thank you, Miss Nakano. That will be all."

Yotsuba blinked, "What?"

"Return to your seat. Now." He glanced at Takeda, who was still taking in the desk, looking confused. "You too, Takeda."

He walked slowly towards his place at the front of the class. Ichika heard his hip crack as he turned to face his students. He laced his fingers behind his back and lifted his wrinkled chin, glaring down his crooked nose as he said, "Who is responsible for this?"

He waited. Someone whispered something in the back of the class. Their teacher said, "Mister Inagi, shall I take that as a confession of guilt?"

The boy stiffened and shook his head defiantly, "No, teacher!"

"Then I suggest you keep your nonsense to yourself!"

Their teacher's voice deepened like a sinking ship, "Now I suspect whoever did this is right here in this room. I'm going to find whoever is responsible, one way or another. So I'll make this offer: this will go far easier on you if you come forward and confess. If you do not, I assure you that your punishment will be much more severe. Now, let's give this one more try: whoever defaced Miss Nakano's desk, stand. Now."

Ichika was amused by their teacher's serious tone. And she wasn't alone. Several students held back giggles at his absurdity. Did he really expect someone to just get up and confess to this?

Only, apparently he did. He stood there like a viper in the dunes patiently waiting to pounce on the first rat to venture out of its cave. As the minutes dragged on and he continued to wait, the silence began to change. His eyes were like great searchlights scanning the prison yard, strangling whatever humor lingered in the air. His gaze was like an inquisition to everyone they met. And anyone who dared to look away was ordered to keep their eyes front. Class was still in session and their teacher demanded undivided attention.

After five minutes of waiting, one of the girls dared to raise her hand. "Excuse me, teacher?"

"Yes?"

"Shouldn't we be studying? The mock exams are tomorrow."

"We should."

"So, are we going to start?"

"We will start, Miss Urumikaya, when whoever saw fit to disrupt our learning environment steps up to apologize."

"But sir-"

"Sit."

She swallowed sharply and did as she was told.

Their teacher said, "Do you hear that, everyone? Whoever vandalized that desk now has two things to apologize for. I have a full day's cram material planned to give you the very best preparation we can provide, but we cannot begin until someone comes forward! This person is now taking from all of you! And we will continue to wait until this person finds their conscience and stands up to make amends for what they have done."

Ichika rolled her eyes and continued looking for birds outside the window. Why was the teacher being so serious about this? It was just a prank, no one got hurt. Maybe it'd even humble a few overinflated egos. And now he wanted to hold up everyone's education for, what, exactly? Did he really think that anyone was going to stand up and say, 'Yes teacher, it was I who humbled the class bitch'? How absurd.

He crossed his arms in front of class and waited. He didn't fidget or shift, he stood still as if his legs were frozen in time. Only his neck swiveled and his eyes queried, waiting for an answer. They discovered their teacher was a very patient man.

"Teacher?"

She glanced at Takeda as he stood. The teacher said, "Takeda, should I believe you had something to do with this?"

"No sir, but if it's alright, I'd like to clean it up."

He nodded, "Go."

Yotsuba blinked like a computer refreshing to clear up RAM, then bolted upright, "Oh! Teacher! I wanna help too!"

"Fine, get going, both of you."

Takeda and Yotsuba left the classroom to gather cleaning supplies. Ichika heard a sharp intake of breath like air leaking from a tire. She recognized it instantly. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Miku watching Yotsuba close the door and gripping the sides of her desk like a woman caught in a flood clinging to a piece of drift wood. For the smallest moment, she looked ready to follow. Then she sighed and slackened into her chair, her eyes losing their momentary shine.

It felt like a knife in her back. Miku, why do you care? We both knew she had it coming.

The pair returned with gloves, rags and cleaning spray. Takeda carried a plastic bag and carefully picked up the condoms while Yotsuba furiously scrubbed the desk like a stone carver thoroughly preparing her canvas. The teacher let them work against the silent crowd as he continued voicelessly asking his students to confess.

Ichika passed the time watching the birds soaring against the clouds. She counted them one after another pretending it was math practice. She saw two birds dancing together in the sky like a tornado funneling up to heaven. She looked away and sighed. Suddenly she saw her teacher staring into her, asking her for everything she may know.

It was a spark that lit Ichika's fury like a powder keg. Did he really think that she had anything to do with this? This was her sister for goodness sake! She would never do something so disrespectful to her blood! She would never write that herself, never. Not about Nino, not about anyone! She wasn't that kind of person! How could her teacher be so stupid even to wonder!? And to think this was the man in charge of their education, it was no wonder they'd needed a tutor! If this was the quality of Japan's teaching cadre, she was surprised Japan ranked anywhere above rock bottom!

And was this really worth wasting everyone's time for? Why did everyone have to suffer all this unpleasantness because of a little prank? That's all it was! A silly prank! No one was hurt! Everyone was gonna walk away from this just fine! But now they had to lose, what, at least an hour of their precious time because he wanted someone to blame? Between her and everyone else that was more than a full day of life they'd never see again. What was the point?

Why was he still staring at her? Why the fuck was he still staring at her!? She didn't have anything to do with this! She never called her sister those names, not once. You can ask anyone! All she did was share a few vignettes about her family. That was it! She was innocent! Everything she told her so-called friends was one-hundred percent true! There was no lying or speculation, everything she said was absolute fact! Why was it her fault if people filled in a few missing details? So what if some people took their games a little too far? Was she supposed to be everyone's nanny and make sure they all played nice like in preschool? No! So stop looking! Stop it, old man! Stop it now!

The bell ringing in the hall broke the spell. Still no one dared to move without their teacher's permission. He held off a moment longer as if to hope that someone would actually step up and own it. He sighed when he accepted that no one would. "You've all disappointed me today. Dismissed. We'll resume lessons next hour."

Ichika picked up her things and stormed from the room before her friends could follow. She was sick of all this shit. Why was she still here anyways? She didn't need a degree, she had a burgeoning career all her own! If this is what she could expect, maybe it was time to think of an early exit. She couldn't wait to graduate and leave this crumbling classroom behind.

_**~Nino~**_

She burst through the rooftop door and into the sunlight. There were no couples seeking a moment of romance, no staff enjoying an under-the-radar smoke, no would-be gangsters malingering like their little sliver of defiance in the universe mattered to anyone important. She had the place all to herself.

She looked up to the sky and watched the clouds laze in the heavenly breeze. She watched the birds fly and listened to the insects whine. She felt the wind brushing her cheek and smelled the last of the morning dew riding the breeze. She felt everything she was meant to feel, and still couldn't believe she was really there. Everything felt fake, like the world forgot how it was supposed to smell, or sound, or look, and could only pretend. She hated them and wanted them to go away. They should just leave her alone.

"Nino!" Itsuki called as she came through the door.

"Go away," she said, as if Itsuki had knocked on an occupied stall and not the most breaking moment of her life.

"Nino, are you-"

"Are you seriously gonna ask me that?"

She hesitated, then said, "Sorry."

Nino only turned when she heard Itsuki unlock her phone, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Calling Uesu-"

"No! Put it away, right now!"

"But I-"

"Now! Why the hell is that so hard to do!?"

Nino turned away. She stormed to the fence guarding the edge. Whoever got paid to design a juvenile prison deserved to live in it for the rest of his stupid life! She gripped the chain links until her hands hurt and stared at the ground. She could see the courtyard five stories below. She wondered how long it would take a peach to fall if she squeezed it through the links. She wondered if it would pop like a water balloon when it hit concrete.

"Nino?" Itsuki tried.

"Just go back to class."

"Nino, I don't wanna do that."

"Why? Can I not have a few fucking minutes by myself!?"

"Nino, can you please get away from the edge?"

Nino shoved the fence, it rattled as she stormed to her sister, "You think I'm gonna jump? There's a big goddamn fence in the way in case you hadn't noticed!"

"I'm just saying-"

"I came up here for a little privacy! That's all I wanted! I can't get that anywhere else! Not at work, not at school, and definitely not at home! Why can't people just leave me the hell alone!? Why is anything I do everybody's fucking business!? I just wanna be left alone!"

Nino ran to the fence. Itsuki followed, screaming, "Nino! Don't-"

"Shut up!" She screamed as she kicked the fence. "I'm not gonna fucking jump! I'm not I'm not I'm not! Why can't you get that through your thick skull? I'm not gonna jump, dammit! I'd never give those gabbleheads the satisfaction!"

She beat the fence until her toes hurt, and then kicked it some more. "And everyone, yes, everyone in that stupid classroom saw what they did and no one bothered to warn me! Even Miku, and Ichika! No one did jack shit for me! You know what that means? They believe it! They think I deserve it! Why? Why would they think that? When have I ever done anything to make anyone think I'm easy? I haven't done anything, no kissing, no dating, not even fucking hand-holding before Futaro! I know, oh I fucking know some of those bitches would need two hands to count all the guys they've sucked faces with! So why me!? When have I even acted like I was open to that shit? I don't even dress slutty when I go out! I'm good! I'm good, dammit! So why!? Why!? I didn't do anything!"

Nino gave one last mighty blow to the hated fence. It wobbled for a moment, then it went still. Nino wished she'd broken it so she could watch it fall, she felt like she'd kicked it hard enough. She breathed like she was trying to rob the world of air, her fists clenched like she was ready to continue her assault. But her energy was gone, she had nothing left.

"I didn't do anything…"

"I know," Itsuki said.

"Why are they doing this?"

"I don't know."

"It just isn't, it's just!" Nino gasped. She grit her teeth and fought back the tears she knew would come. Not now. Not like this.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She heaved and grabbed it, wanting to feel its warmth more than she wanted to feel alone. But these fingers were longer than Itsuki's, and familiar. She peeked over her shoulder and saw Futaro. His face twitched as if trying to learn a new expression. He never learned to pity. She hoped he never did, she didn't want it.

"Hey," he said.

"How long have you been there?"

"Since you tried to break the fence."

Nino looked away quickly. His presence was like a judge at a murder trial. She couldn't meet his eye because if she saw even the slightest hint of belief there, if he even suspected that what they said about her was true, well, she didn't know what she'd do. They might not be able to come back from that. She couldn't bear him accusing her too.

"Hey, Nino?"

"What?"

"Can you come here?"

"Don't wanna."

"Okay."

She looked down. She did want to, though. She really did. She wanted him to ask her again, and again, until she felt safe enough to say yes.

He squeezed her shoulder, "Nino?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm here."

"I know you are."

"Is that okay?"

"I guess."

"And, are you-"

"Don't ask me. Not now."

"Oh, alright." Futaro shifted, unsure of what else he could do. But he wasn't leaving. Nino wondered if he did, would he ever come back?

"I didn't do it," she choked out.

"Do what?"

"What they said, I didn't do anything."

"I know."

"They're all liars!"

"Yeah, I know."

She turned to look at him and she couldn't hide her fear that he wouldn't believe her. She asked him, almost pleading to know, "I never did anything like that. I'm not a, I'm not a," she choked.

Futaro slid his arms around her, "I know."

Nino felt the tears come and she was too tired to fight them. She clung to Futaro and whimpered, "I didn't do anything."

"I know. It's not your fault."

"They're all liars."

"They are."

"I don't know why they said that, I'm not that kind of girl. I'm not."

"I know, Nino. I know."

And with every reassurance he pulled her a little closer, and Nino let herself go a little more. Finally she looked up, and through her tears and her sadness she saw how he looked at her, asking what he needed to do to make this better. And she knew he believed every word she said. She felt stupid to have doubted him, and more guilty, which only made her cry harder. She couldn't say how long they stayed like that, but it didn't feel like long enough, and when she finally let go she wanted to go back to where she felt safe.

She looked at his chest and said, "I got your shirt wet."

"I noticed."

"They're gonna see it."

"I don't care."

"You never did," she smiled a little.

She took his hand and wanted to walk to Itsuki, but she nearly collapsed under her foot when she tried to move. The pain was like a beating heart pulsing through her bones. Futaro caught her and asked, "What's wrong?"

"My foot, it hurts."

Itsuki ran over and said, "You must've hurt it on the fence."

Futaro sat her down and said, "Let me take a look."

But Itsuki said, "No, I'll do it. Futaro, go wait by the stairs."

"I know how to handle-"

"I know you do, but you know what'll happen if someone stumbles up and sees you holding her foot."

Futaro glared, "I'm only helping her-"

"I know! But just think what they'll see. Things are bad enough as they are. No need to add fuel to the fire, right?"

Futaro wasn't convinced, but Itsuki said, "I can handle this. Please."

Nino liked him leaving her as much as Futaro did, but Itsuki was right. She didn't want to see heads poking out the door and acting like this confirmed all the nasty things said about her. Futaro helped her sit and went inside to stand sentry at the stairs.

Itsuki helped her unlace her shoe and remove her sock. Her toes were puffy and red like a nose halfway through a cold. She tried to wiggle them and felt her muscles unionize in protest.

"Stop fidgeting! Let me see," Itsuki said. She gently took each to starting from her biggest and tested them. Nino winced whenever her testing sparked pain. She took each toe and Nino felt her pressing the joints and ligaments, feeling around for the bones inside.

"Nothing broken, I think. Thank god. But it's gonna swell. We should get some ice."

"Don't need it."

"You're being stubborn."

"So what? It's my foot. I'll do what I want with it."

"Nino-"

"I know, I know. I'm being stupid." Nino paused, then said, "Sorry."

"For what?"

"For shouting."

Itsuki smiled sadly, "It's alright, I get it."

She asked, "Did you know anything about this?"

"No, of course not."

"But you noticed everyone's been looking at me funny. Everyone in school. I thought it was because of my glasses. My own friends even hinted at this last weekend," she held her glasses and examined them, feeling like such a fool, "How the hell didn't I notice?"

"Stop blaming yourself, you couldn't have known," Itsuki insisted.

"Oh yes I could. I know how the rumor mill works. Someone's been spreading this crap about me and of course I'm the last person to find out. I'd have noticed if not for, not for, well, all of this! What the hell is going on with me!? I should've seen this coming!"

"There's been too much going on to catch this, it isn't your fault."

"I know that! I just, I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Why me?"

"I don't know."

"I hate it," she said, her voice shrinking like a dying speaker, "I hate them too. All those dastardly, two-faced assholes. I hate them all."

"I know," Itsuki said as she worked her fingers over each toe, "But we know that's not what you are. So does Futaro. Everyone who actually matters knows."

If there was a single spark in all this, there it was. Forget them, forget everyone who had any part in this. She had exactly what she needed right here, just like she always did.

"I'm gonna go back to class," Nino said, finding her voice.

Itsuki looked up, "You sure?"

"Yeah, they're not gonna stop me. And I'm going with Futaro, too. Let them think whatever they want, I'm not gonna care. They do not get to decide how I live my life."

Itsuki smiled, "I knew you'd get there. But let's get some ice on this first."

They grabbed Futaro and headed to the nurse's office. There she got an ice pack and soothed her swelling for half an hour. Then she slipped on her sock and shoe and readied herself to face the class. Let them know that they could call her a slut and a whore and a dumbass, but they would never stop Nino Nakano.

_**~Miku~**_

She'd wanted to say something. She did. She just never managed to pull out her phone.

When she saw Nino's desk, she stopped and squeezed her eyes shut as if to clear the slate and give them a second chance. The words hadn't made sense. This wasn't Nino at all. Why would anyone say that about her?

She pondered the question all the way to her desk, it was all too bizarre to be real. The worst she'd ever seen one student do to another was plant a whoppie cushion in their chair. That was as harmless spur-of-the-moment prank. This took time, planning and recklessness. Whoever did this had to know exactly when the room would be empty. They'd have to buy a box of condoms and fill them with, well she didn't want to know what it was. She hoped it was spit. This wasn't something done on a whim, this was a plot. But who would want to do that to Nino?

And then she realized her sister must be on her way. Nino, she could take almost anything, but even iron is breakable. She had to warn them! She whipped out her phone and typed...nothing. She didn't know where to begin. Come on, just tell her not to come. Text Itsuki, or Yotsuba, even Futaro if not her, but despite her begging her hands to move, they wouldn't form the words. She didn't know what to say. How could she approach the people she cut off from her life?

And then Nino arrived, and she saw everything. And Miku saw that even her indomitable sister had her limits. Her phone sat heavy in her hands with the guilt that she could have stopped this. A part of her wanted to follow her when she ran, but she couldn't see the point. What could she offer now?

She saw another chance to act when Takeda offered to clean. As he and Yotsuba left to collect supplies, she was seized with a need to get up. She gripped the sides of her desk and rose from her seat. Then she saw the teacher looking at her, asking what she wanted to do. He wasn't malicious, he didn't look at her accusingly like everyone else, he didn't think she had it in her. But still, his gaze made her question what she was thinking, as if she needed a thesis of an answer before she had permission to act. She lost all faith that she was doing the right thing. She slumped into her chair and went still.

This was the world she couldn't understand. It was like arriving to a new city and getting lost in the crowd. It was too busy, too cluttered for her to find her place. And every time she tried venturing out of her safe little bubble, she would always find a set of eyes watching her, asking her what in good graces she thought she was doing. That doubt infected her like a virus riddling her body with weakness, because what did she have to offer? There was always someone better, someone more suited to whatever she was trying to do.

And again, the world proved her right. Takeda and Yotsuba finished cleaning the desk alone, it hardly took five minutes. They didn't need her after all, she'd have only slowed them down.

She stayed sitting as the bell rang and their teacher set them loose. She watched her classmates disperse and reassemble before class could resume like the tide going out and in. And then, right before the top of the hour, Nino returned.

She threw open the door and stepped inside like an exiled princess returning to claim her birthright. She silently challenged the class, her eyes glaring like flamethrowers. She was above the leers and chuckles thrown her way, they bounded off her like arrows on good castle stone. She held her head high as she took her seat and opened her books. She was strong, they wouldn't beat her, no matter how hard they tried.

Miku was so proud of her sister. She didn't know where she'd found that unparalleled willpower, but she knew it would serve her well. And she wondered, if they really were born equal, where hers had perished long ago.

_**~Futaro~**_

This never happened before. He read the words he needed to read. He heard the teacher's lecture as clearly as a gunshot in the valley. But nothing stuck. It flowed in, then out, like one breath after another in a room filled with Carbon Dioxide.

But it'd be a mistake to think his mind was inactive, it wasn't. It was always moving like the fabled perpetual motion device he'd tried more than once to design as a thought experiment. He pushed the limits of mental endurance daily, until strain was nothing more than his base operating state. But he couldn't think about school, or tests, because none of that mattered right now.

What did matter was making sure this never happened again. This wasn't the first prank he'd seen, just last year he'd heard about a pair of hooligans who set a pail of water over the door two classes down. Their teacher not only got soaked, but grew a respectable lump on his balding head. They managed to avoid expulsion, but they'd be cleaned the bathrooms every day after class until graduation. The principal had a reputation for walking a hard line. Yet someone was willing to risk it just to humiliate his girlfriend. And he wondered, what was stopping them from doing it again?

He had no proof that they'd dare another prank, that didn't matter; what did mattered is that it happened in the first place, and it might happen again. If whoever set this up wasn't satisfied, if they wanted to humiliate Nino so deeply she'd never recover, and if this was somehow personal, they'd try something else, maybe something worse.

He couldn't unsee his girlfriend's tears, or the fear that those who still loved her would see her as what they said. It was a dagger in his chest worse than any red tick on his homework, worse than anything less than a three digit test score. It consumed him like the rising ocean under a glacier-melting sun. He was going to stop this and make sure she never hurt like this again.

So he investigated. He ignored the lecture and his lessons and formed an inquisition inside his head. He ran over all the details and facts from the last few weeks like turning over all the stones on a beach, and when he was done he didn't have any solid leads. But he knew where to start.

He wanted to keep Nino as far from this as he could, but he needed Yotsuba's help to make this work. The only chance he'd have is when Nino had her foot reexamined by the nurse after lunch.

He kept close to her as they entered the cafeteria. He didn't need to look for proof that word got around, he knew how quickly the rumor mill turned. No one gave them any trouble as they reached their corner booth, but he couldn't stop the mocking look in their eyes. They ate quietly, Itsuki tiptoed around the anvil hanging around Nino's neck.

When she left for the nurse's office, he knew Nino wanted him to go with her. He gave her an excuse, saying the teacher wanted his and Yotsuba's advice on what kind of cheating to watch for during the exams. This was news to Yotsuba, and disappointment for Nino as she left alone with Itsuki. Futaro promized her he'd see her again before class resumed. He watched her go with Itsuki holding her arm, and he realized as he watched a pair of boys eyeing her that she wouldn't be going anywhere alone for a long time. It wasn't safe anymore.

Yotsuba followed him through the hall, asking, "So what's the teacher think we know about cheating? I get that as class reps we gotta help him out, but wouldn't this be better coming from someone who actually, you know, cheats?"

"That was a lie."

"Oh. Why?"

"I'll tell you in a minute."

A bundle of students was chatting near the window. One pointed towards them and whispered something, causing a wave of laughter to echo through the hall. Yotsuba asked, "What's that about?"

"Probably think you're Nino."

"Again?"

"Again." It was really pissing him off.

He took her into an empty copy room. It was little more than a broom closet, but he suspected they wouldn't be disturbed here. No one actually wanted to work on a lunch break, except maybe himself and Takeda. And if anyone saw them, no one would question class reps making copies the day before an exam.

Yotsuba held her hands in front of her like a nun and said, "Futaro, I don't think it's a good thing to lie to your girlfriend, whatever the reason."

"She can't know about this, okay? It stay between us."

"What does?"

"I know how to find out who did this."

She paused, "You do?"

"Yes. You cleaned Nino's desk, right? Did you take a picture before then?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Evidence!"

"Oh, well I didn't. But do you think Takeda might have?"

"Why would he have one?"

"He helped me clean. It was his idea, actually, so really I helped him."

"It was?"

"Yup!"

Futaro didn't know what to think of that. Takeda seemed far too prissy to voluntarily clean someone else's mess. His father probably hired help to clean up his own. He'd have to dissect that thought further when he had time.

"Well I doubt he took a picture, he doesn't seem the type either."

Yotsuba smiled sadly, "So no go?"

"Yes go. Gimme your phone."

He took it and checked her apps. He paused, "Uh, which one's twitter?"

She offered her hand, "How about you guide me?"

He had her check for any updates in the last few hours until just before the start of class, he suspected if anything had been posted earlier, Nino would've seen it. She scrolled through her feed full of selfies, clear skies that all looked like they were taken from the same window, and food pics. He'd never understand why anyone would bother to brag about cafeteria food. Then she found it.

"Got it!"

"Save it and zoom in. There, let me see."

He took out a folder of papers he'd been carrying and sifted through them, swapping his gaze from paper to phone before moving on to the next sheet.

"What're you looking for?" Yotsuba asked.

He pointed, "See this character? How many people round the circle with the trail ending at the bottom?"

"Uh..."

"I'll tell you: almost no one, most people start circles at the top. If I compare the handwriting on the desk to our last assignments, I can figure out who wrote this."

Yotsuba's mouth slackened, "Wow. That's so cool!"

Futaro sifted through a half dozen more papers before he found what he was looking for. "Here she is: Mizuri Tsuga. And she had the perfect opportunity yesterday, she was assigned classroom cleaning duty. She'd have been the last one in that day. Her handwriting's a perfect match, see?"

"I don't! But I believe you! So that's who started this?"

"No, all I know for sure is she's responsible for the desk. But she's the key to figuring out who's behind the rumors."

"How's that?"

"Because I have this to hang over her head if she won't tell me. All I have to do is get her alone. That's where you come in."

Yotsuba looked uncertain, "Me? What can I do?"

"I need you to change the cleaning assignment board. Switch out whoever's supposed to clean the classroom with Tsuga and me. If she complains, tell her that she must've misread the board and thought she had duty yesterday."

"But isn't that, I don't know, it's abusing our positions, isn't it?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"It just seems wrong to me."

Futaro looked at her hard, "Yotsuba, I stopped caring the moment we walked into class today. Will you please help me with this?"

Yotsuba looked up, down, and all around to avoid answering. She fidgeted with her hands, ringing them like she wanted to get all the blood out of her fingers. But Futaro already knew she'd give in. He'd have felt guilty pressuring her if it were for anything else, but he was beginning to realize how far he'd go for someone he cared for.

"Well...alright, I'll do it. But I'm gonna feel really, really bad about this and I wanna make it up to her, okay?"

"You know this is the girl who called Nino a slut, right?"

"I know, but still...I don't wanna be mean."

"You're not." Just leave that part to me, he thought.

Tsuga didn't exactly blow up when she discovered the change, but she didn't take it with grace either. Somewhere in the middle, which suited him just fine. She complained how unlucky she was to be stuck at school with the class robot the day before the mock exams. Futaro was looking forward to spending the afternoon with her. He really was.

He promised to meet the sisters at their home for their final night of cramming after he finished cleaning. Nino was suspicious how he'd suddenly gotten cleaning duty. He just shrugged and pointed to the chart. She told him he should've used his position as class rep to change it, who wanted cleaning duty the day before the exams? If only she knew. He'd tell her someday, she'd be so proud of him. He could almost picture her feisty grin on a job well done.

Futaro waited in the emptying classroom while Tsuga gathered supplies. The room was empty when she finally returned with arms loaded with broom, dustpan, sprays and rags. She dropped it on the front desk and complained, "You could've helped, you know."

He nodded to the whiteboard, "Start there. I'll get the table tops."

He sprayed the rag and began wiping as Tsuga cleaned the discolored whiteboard. After the third desk, Futaro dropped his rag and closed the door before approaching Tsuga.

"I know it was you."

Tsuga paused, glaring over her shoulder, "What was what?"

"Do you wanna go home? Because this is gonna go a lot faster if you quit playing innocent."

"I don't know what you're-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure." Futaro stepped closer, happy that Tsuga had nowhere to run. "First bit of advice: next time you vandalize someone's desk, try to change your handwriting. It took me five minutes to figure out it was you."

Tsuga raised her rag like a knife, "Oh that's it? That's cute, Uesugi. Real freaking cute. Or at least it would be if it wasn't so sad. Are you the reason I'm stuck here again? I get it, your girlfriend's getting called out. But that doesn't mean you've Sherlocked your way to an answer, I've got nothing to do with this."

"Here's what's gonna happen: you're gonna tell me who's behind all these rumors. If you do that, and I won't tell the teacher it was you."

She laughed, "Tell the teachers!? With what? That little crackpot theory? Get lost, you nerd."

Futaro grinned darkly, "That's right, I'm a nerd. I'm the biggest, smartest nerd in the entire country. And can you guess who knows that?" She looked confused. He sneered, "All the teachers in this school. Every. Last. One. I'll be on every teacher's resume from here to retirement, 'I taught this year's number one student in the nation'! Wanna guess the perks that nets me? I can do just about anything I want. I can check out as many books as I like for as long as I want them. Teachers let me do all my homework for the year in advance so I can study what I want without getting distracted, I literally finished our coursework over break. And they will believe every single word I say. Do you think they care that I swapped you on the cleaning chart? Do you think they'd care if I make you clean the boy's nasty restroom every single day to graduation? Because I will if you don't tell me. I will make your senior year the most miserable of your entire life, and no one's gonna stop me!"

She curled into herself like a snake ready to strike, "What the hell, Uesugi? Why do you wanna take this out on me? You should be thanking me, you ungrateful prick! Now you know exactly what kind of girl she is! You should be angry at her!"

"I already know what kind of girl she is. And now I know what kind of girl you are, too."

There it was, the moment of doubt. He said, "Second piece of advice: don't mess with the smartest guy in the room, or the people he loves. Now tell me what I wanna know, or get the scrubber."

_**~Ichika~**_

She'd been looking for an excuse to get away. The doorbell was as good as any.

"I'll get it," she volunteered.

Takeda asked, "Did you finish problem thirty-two?"

"I'll get to it in a second!"

"You'll lose focus if you stop now."

"I will not! It'll only be a second!"

Takeda looked ready to continue, but Miku tugged his sleeve and asked, "One of us has to get it anyways. Can you show me how to graph this again?"

Takeda sighed and rubbed his temple. Ichika remembered Uesugi sitting right there doing the same thing countless times. She looked away and left before she started thinking about it further.

She answered the wall terminal and said, "Nakano residence, who's this?"

"Come down."

She recalled the last time she froze like a grassy field before a winter sunrise. Not surprisingly, it was also because of Futaro. He'd been so close to her face she though, maybe hoped that he wanted his reward from her. A reward she'd have happily given in spite of the audience. She remembered his eyes were so curious and soft they sent tingles down her spine, and his voice was so excited and warm she wanted it to sing her a lullaby every night before bed.

His voice had no warmth now. It was cold as a camp in the Antarctic.

"You hear me?"

Ichika realized this was a stranger at her doorstep, a part of Uesugi she'd never met. And she understood why this stranger was knocking at her door, she realized what he must know. Ichika realized that if she went down, she couldn't know what was waiting for her. So she determined to stay exactly where she was.

Ichika checked to see if Takeda or Miku heard. Takeda was busy explaining quadratic equations for the fourth time. She said, "Uesugi? Sorry, we're in the middle of study hours. You know how pricey tutoring can be. Come back some other time. Or better yet, let's talk at school."

"Ichika, either you come down right now, or I'm going to use the card I stole from Yotsuba to come in, I'm going to take the elevator to your floor, and I'm going to break down your god damn door."

It would have been less threatening if he'd screamed it, but hearing him describe it so calmly, as simple as if not A, then B, was terrifying. She asked herself if Uesugi could really be so bold, and realized that she couldn't know. She wished they lived in a building with security guards. Technology only offered so much protection.

She said, "Have it your way. I'll be down in a minute." She cut the call and told Takeda she needed to go down to meet with her manager. It was a reasonable lie, this wouldn't be the first time. Before she left she went to her room and grabbed her purse, and something else. A small cylinder with a nozzle at the top, and instructions to 'point away from face' printed on the side. Just in case.

She rode the elevator to the lobby and saw Uesugi waiting outside the glass doors the moment she stepped out. He must've come straight from school, not that she could tell. Did he ever wear anything except their school uniform? She couldn't fathom how Nino could date someone so unfashionable.

Uesugi motioned to the door, silently demanding she come out. Ichika smiled serenely and shook her head. He couldn't get in, he must have lied about stealing a key. She wasn't about to get any closer than she had to. Instead she took out her phone and called.

He picked up and said, "I know what you did. Don't you dare play dumb, I saw your texts and heard exactly what you've been spreading."

Of course he had. Why else would he be here? She tilted her head to the side innocently, saying, "Yeah? So what?"

Uesugi's eyes widened, she could see his hand shaking the phone by his ear. He still used an old flip phone. Probably bought it at a pawn shop, the cheapskate.

"So what? Is that all you have to say to this? This is Nino, your sister for goodness sake! How could you do this to anyone, let alone her? Do you know how deeply this hurt her?"

Ichika checked her nails and sighed, "Again, so what?"

Uesugi's jaw went slack. Looks like she'd finally put him at a loss for words.

She continued, "You think I'm spreading rumors? Well that isn't right. All I've been doing is telling stories, and they're all one hundred percent true. Did Nino not walk in on you at the hot springs? Did she not try and practice kissing with me? Did she not meet a strange boy in the woods and come back with a rip in her skirt? It's all true, Uesugi. So don't go calling me a liar, I don't deserve that."

"Cut the crap, Ichika! You kept the context out of it every single time! You told it in just the right way for them to reach the conclusion you wanted. You knew where they would take it, and you never stopped them. That's lying all the same."

"I'm not their keepers. It sounds like you should be talking with them about making unfounded assumptions, Uesugi."

"Not me. You."

She blinked, "Excuse me?"

"You started this, so you have to end it. You have to tell everyone that these rumors aren't true and that they took this too far. That's the only way we can fix this. And you cannot, not ever, start spreading this again."

Ichika yawned, "Uesugi, the mock exams are tomorrow. I really don't have time to humor you." She hung up and grinned at Uesugi through the glass.

He looked to his phone, then to her. His eyes were dangerous like a bull ready to charge.

He took out Yotsuba's key card and swiped it. The doors opened. Ichika realized the only things between them was air. Uesugi stormed towards her.

Ichika screamed and reached into her purse for the spray, but fumbled and couldn't grip it. She walked backwards and tripped on the carpet. The contents of her purse spilled out, she reached for the spray, but Uesugi stepped on it first. Ichika's mind was blank as she tried to scramble away. He lifted it and inspected it, then focused on her with eyes that would boil water. He tossed the can over his shoulder and glared death.

"If it were you and me, she would've accepted it. She would've loved you no matter what."

Ichika crawled away, breathing sharp, hurried breaths as her heart pounded like a battering ram in her chest. "Get away from me! Get out, get out get out! Right now!"

Uesugi frowned and pointed to her, "End this Ichika. Now. Or else." Then he left. By the time Ichika got to her feet, he was out of sight.

Ichika curled into a ball and cried against the wall. The fear ate at her heart like a phantom haunting her steps. She could still see Uesugi lording over her like an executioner. She imagined all the horrible things he could have done but didn't, but he looked so close to letting loose with fists and screams and hands and so much more that she could feel it! She could feel his touch and his selfishness all over her and she felt disgusting. Ichika touched her body all over to make sure she was safe and well.

She hiccuped as she told herself over and over that she was okay. She was okay. He hadn't hurt her. She was okay. But she wouldn't go calm, Uesugi's presence lingered over her like a bad smell, and her fear boiled into rage. He had violated her deeply, too deeply to go unchecked. She wanted to hurt Uesugi in the most painful way possible. And she knew exactly how to do it.

End it now? Fuck you. She wasn't going to change for Uesugi. Fuck him and fuck her too for loving him!

She wiped her tears and climbed the elevator to her floor. She ran through the door and up the stairs, hoping to be quick enough that Takeda and Miku couldn't see her face. She told them she needed something from here room. They didn't notice when she went into Nino's instead.

Her sister's old room was largely untouched, she may have threatened to occupy it like a closet, but she hadn't wanted to touch the filthy place. But now she needed something. Nino always was the sentimental one. She'd built scrap books and photo albums dating back before their mother's death. She had pictures of everything. Everything. Even the things she hated.

She found what she was looking for under an older album in a box next to her desk. Inside she found a well of unsorted pictures, the ones Nino either didn't care for or wanted to get rid of, but she never could, she clung to every memory as a hoarder clings to old newspaper clippings. She sifted through them until she found the picture she wanted. She took a pic with her phone carefully cropped the image. Then she sent it out in a group text.

'Check out my little sister Nino! Isn't she so cute with all that metal? Can you do me a favor? I want this all over school tomorrow. It'll be a great surprise!'

**A/N**

This one's gonna hurt.

A while ago I said this story would have three main arcs, but as I've continued storyboarding, I've decided on four distinct arcs in total with an epilogue after all is said and done. We're now approaching the climax of the second, and there'll be two distinct climactic moments before it's done. There's a lot more story to tell, and bit by it will be written.

We're going to see a different side of Futaro here, a part that he hasn't had a chance to know himself. When you love someone, that empathy forces you to share their pain. So Futaro feels Nino's pain in a new light: someone he loves is hurting, and he wants it to stop. And he's going to learn how far he'll go and what he will do get what he wants. And in doing so, he's going to learn that he has a lot of growing left to do. These are young adults still learning right, wrong, and how little those two words can actually mean.

The board is set now, the dynamite stacked and the fuse is lit. Something is going to blow, and people aren't done getting hurt. After everyone is blown away by the blast, it'll be on the strong to pick up the rest.

Thank you all who have reviewed, you shared some strong reactions to the last chapter, which is exactly what I was trying to elicit. I want it here again, I hope this chapter delivers some curious emotional tangles. There'll be more to come next time. Until then, please review and share your thoughts with me, I'll greatly appreciate it.

Chapter published: July 16th, 2020


	26. Instincts

**Burning The Midnight Oil**

**Chapter 2****6**

**Instincts**

_**~Nino~**_

A funny thing happens when something 'coming soon' finally arrives. A kind of tension like a finger on a harp string ready to pluck builds inside your chest, and there it lingers. And when the day finally arrives and all your anticipation should sing like Beethoven's Ninth, the finger is still tugging the string. It's as if the mind looks at the calendar and decides that can't possibly be right, so it buries itself in a hole and sings la la la la la, nothing to see here!

Nino checked her phone again and saw the date, then sighed and set it down. April fourteenth. The mock exams were here. So why did it feel like she still had time left? Her body felt numb, like it knew that if it felt anything it would be dread, and so it determined to feel nothing at all. She checked her phone again. It was four thirty-two. She'd been up since the top of the hour.

She knew she wasn't falling back asleep. They'd stayed up until eleven with last minute prep, and then Futaro had insisted they go straight to bed. He said something about needing at least seven hours of sleep to solidify neural connections and actually remember what they learned. She hoped the thought counted for something. She hated waiting for what wouldn't come, so she sneaked past her slumbering siblings and went to the kitchen.

Pans and mixers were already prepped to go. She'd planned on making a killer breakfast to start the day right. At least now she wouldn't have to rush. She sent Futaro a quick text for when he woke up letting him know she was gonna be ready.

She jumped when her phone buzzed a moment later.

_What the hell are you doing up?_

Nino texted back, _Did I wake you?_

_No! But what woke you up?_

She grinned,_ So you can't sleep either?_

_No. I got two hours, at least._

She checked the door for her sisters' light snoring, before texting, _Wanna call?_

_Good idea, we can get some last minute study in._

_No no no no no! Just talk, okay?_

_Alright I guess. One sec._

She went to the bathroom and shut the door behind her, sitting on the toilet lid as Futaro's face lit up her display. It was a picture she'd taken the night he bought her earrings. The night he called her his girlfriend.

She said, "Hey there, sleepyhead."

"Likewise. How long've you been up for?"

"Since before four, so better than you."

"Nervous?"

"Kinda. Not really feeling it. It's like, where did all the time go?"

"Do you really need to ask that?"

"Not really. Now I know how Umi feels like. Oh! You never met Umi, she was in our last school. She started dating this guy Hizura, really good swimmer, and class rep to boot. She was so stoked when he asked her out, like-"

"Nino, does this have a point?"

"I'm getting to it! Patience, Futaro! Anyways, where was I?"

"How stoked she was?" he said irritably.

"Right! So we were first years and he was a third, so he was picking from the fresh crop. But she was swooning and happy so it was all roses! Except then, you see before she'd been a stellar student, but right after she started dating, her test scores plummeted! She complained how dating ate into all her time and she couldn't juggle grades and a boyfriend all at once."

Futuro asked, "What happened to them?"

"Hmm, they broke up sometime after midterms. I'm surprised they made it that long, they were total opposites."

"I see."

"And I know what you're thinking, that's totally us. Except, no, definitely not. We're so much better."

"I know you're biased. But yeah."

"Futaro?"

"Hm?"

"Do you wish we would've gotten together later?"

"You mean after the exams, or after graduation?"

"I wouldn't wait that long."

"Didn't think so."

"Like, think back to that night I told you I'd back off until after the exams. If you never heard that, if we just kept things like they were, would it have been better?"

"It might have been easier. I'd have had fewer distractions. But if that's all that mattered, Id've turned all of you down at Christmas and just studied on my own. I'm still here, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but what about us?"

"Nino, you know the answer to that."

Nino gripped her phone, "I still wanna hear you say it?"

Futaro chuckled, he understood. He knew her so well. "And risk any of this? No. I've had a blast."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Nino."

"Nino?"

She heard a door open, Futaro said, "Raiha? Hey, give it back!"

"Nino!" Raiha said, "Hi!"

"Uh, hi, Raiha."

"Is Itsuki up?"

"No."

"What about Yotsuba?"

"No, still sleeping."

"Okay. Bye!"

"Oh. Bye."

She played with the fabric of her pajamas until Futaro came back, "I need to get dad to install a lock on the bathroom."

"Your sister really doesn't like me," she said sadly.

Futaro sighed, "I know. She's just jealous."

"Of what? I'm trying to be close to her, I really am."

"She just needs to get to know you better, I know she'll warm up to you soon."

"Yeah, well she's being really mean about it."

"Reminds me of someone I know watching someone disrupting the family routine, you know. She came around in the end, though."

"Who's that? Oh, you! It's me, isn't it?"

"Bingo."

"Hmph. Was I worse?"

"Has Raiha drugged you yet?"

"Does melting my taste buds count?"

"No."

"Hmm. Fine, I guess we'll see."

"Why don't we do something together this weekend?"

"The three of us?"

"Sure."

"Won't she get fussy? It'll be like being the third wheel."

"Nah, that's actually how she got close with Itsuki. Remember meeting us that night with the fireworks?"

"Hmm, well, I got nothing to lose. Sure, why not? You really think she'll like me?"

"She likes everyone. She just likes Itsuki and Yotsuba more."

"Than me?"

"Than everyone."

"Oh." Nino kicked her legs and asked, "Hey, you talk with Takeda recently?"

"About what?"

"Ichika and Miku? Are they doing okay?"

"You're the one who asks him that."

"Not about their personal lives, I mean studies. Does he think they'll do okay on the exams?"

Futaro sighed, "I mean, I never ask, but I get a good idea when we work on their study plans. It's hard to tell. He's always complaining about how thick-headed they are, but so was I. But, he's complaining about harder topics, so I guess there's progress."

Nino smiled slightly, "Good, I'm glad they're okay."

"I know."

"You think this changes the bet?"

Futaro paused, "Bet?"

"Yeah, like they're with Takeda now, so does this change the wager?"

"Uh, maybe?"

Nino sat up straight, "Futaro, did you already talk with papa about this?"

"Papa about...the bet! Oh, no! No we haven't!"

Nino laughed, "Oh my gosh you forgot about the bet!"

"I did not!"

"You totally did!"

"Just for a second!"

"This entire month has been all about this bet, was I that distracting?"

"First of all, yes, you were."

"You're welcome," she said with pride.

"Second, I didn't forget, I just haven't slept much and have something else on my mind."

"Like what?" Futaro was quiet for some time, she asked again, "What is it? If it's about what happened yesterday, I'm still pissed off too. But we've got more important things to worry about, don't we?"

He sighed, "It's just, I don't wanna talk about it. That okay?"

"I mean I guess. But if it's important-"

"It is, but, it's like how you didn't want to tell your sisters until the right time. I can't tell you yet."

"Oh. Okay." She said sadly.

"Can you trust me on this?"

"I will. It's just, your family has this 'no secrets' thing, and I kinda want that too."

Futaro breathed harshly, "I know, I don't want to either. But I don't know how to tell you, or, if I even should. Just give me some time to work through this and I'll tell you, okay?"

"Okay. But tell me something else then."

"Sure."

"Do you feel ready? Can you really score in the top ten in the country?"

"I have spent every free hour not with you, my family or yours preparing. I'm as ready as I can be."

"But will it be enough?"

"Can I tell you the truth?"

"I hope so."

"I don't think it matters anymore. If I win, things stay the same. And if I lose, well, I may not be your official tutor anymore, but things won't change much beyond that. I'll still have you, Yotsuba, Itsuki, and Miku, if she wants."

"And Ichika."

Futaro paused, "Right, and Ichika."

"Well, win all the same. I wanna shove it in Papa's face."

"You got it."

"Were you studying when I texted you?"

"I was. I couldn't sleep, so I might as well."

"I figured. You're so predictable." She grinned, then thought it through further and asked, "You're not studying now, though. Right?"

"It's called multitasking."

"I can't, well, okay, I can believe it, but still! You're calling your girlfriend and you have a textbook on your lap!"

"You want me to win, right? You'll have my undivided attention after today."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"I'll hold you to it, and let you get back to it."

"How kind. And what'll you do?"

"Gonna make a killer breakfast and text you a pic. You'll be so jealous."

"I'm sure I will."

"But not for long. I've got something big planned for your birthday tomorrow."

"Can't wait, Nino. I'll see you in class."

"We're gonna blow 'em away."

"I love you, Nino."

"Love you too, Futaro. See you soon."

She hung up and left the toilet. A talk with a lover is like a booster in the arm. If Futaro was so unworried about the exams that he could forget his wager with papa, what did she have to worry about? She felt her tension melting like wax in the summer sun.

She checked the time. Just after five. More time than she'd ever need for breakfast, unless she wanted a full continental buffet. Maybe she'd make one when this was over for the five of them. And Futaro too, of course. And papa if he bothered to come home for once. And maybe Takeda too, if he helped her sisters pass this thing.

She started with some light yoga to help her body wake up with her mind. She thought about all those knowing grins and subtle laughs at her while she stretched her legs in pigeon pose, and then released both tensions at once. She buried all her stress and humiliation in her joints and just stretched, crushing them, processing them, and then letting them go. Some people ate copious amounts of food. Others sat in a dark room for hours at a time. Nino did yoga. She considered hers the better stress management style. She remembered all those mornings focusing on their annoying, belligerent tutor. Look how well that turned out!

Nino finished with plenty of time for breakfast. A big day called for big preparations! Her paycheck arrived and she'd splurged. Berries? Check! Out of season cherries? Check! Fresh fish? Check! She had organic eggs, vegetables, even miso! This breakfast was gonna be bomb!

It wasn't even six yet when she set the fish in the oven. She used the extra time to arrange a plate of colorful berries into a word. If this were Futaro, she'd have arranged them into 'one hundred percent go!', but she wasn't that ambitious for her sisters. A simple 'pass!' would do nicely.

She had everything set and prepared the table. She took a picture of the completed spread and sent it to Futaro with pride. Then she went to the bedroom and roughly opened the door to announce, "Rise and shine, sleepyheads! Breakfast is served! Get it while it's hot!"

When her sisters didn't rise quickly enough for her liking, she hurried the process along with strong arms and plenty of shoving. She arranged Itsuki and Yotsuba in their seats and showcased her meal with a sweep of her arms, "Doesn't it look delicious?"

"Huh? Itsuki asked.

Nino rolled her eyes. How ungrateful. She pulled out her phone and switched to the front camera. "Come on, smile!"

Yotsuba wined, "No no no, no pictures. My face is all puffy."

"Mine too."

"Too late! Best effort girls!" She made a peace sign under her chin, with Itsuki and Yotsuba blearily tried to copy, and took the picture. "Good enough!"

Itsuki glared, "What're you doing?"

"Sending it to Futaro."

"No! I look like a sleeping pig!"

"Not my fault you slept in!"

"It's six-thirty!"

"Food! Focus on the food!" Nino said as she hit send. She took her seat and carved up the fish. She wondered if this is what being a mother would be like, ungrateful children eating her hard work without comment. She'd make sure her future children would appreciate her sacrifices.

Itsuki retained the structure of play-doh throughout the meal, while Yotsuba perked up with every bite. When she cleared her plate she exclaimed, "Wow, that was incredible! Thank you Nino!"

"No problem, it's my-" Yotsuba was gone. Nino blinked at her empty chair. "Yotsuba?"

Yotsuba peeked out the bathroom door with a toothbrush in one hand and a wash cloth in the other. "Sorry, gotta rush!"

"What for? Are you running today?"

"No, but I gotta get to class early! Class reps gotta help prep the classrooms!" Nino was barely finished with the dishes when Yotsuba sprinted out the door, "See you in class!" Nino blinked and she was gone. Yotsuba was like an electron, you could never be sure exactly where she was or where she was going, you could only make a vague guess that she was somewhere nearby.

"Know why she's in such a hurry?" Itsuki asked.

"No clue. You?"

"No, but I bet it has something to do with Futaro."

"He would've told me," Nino insisted, then recalled how there was something bothering him that he wouldn't share, and wondered.

She finished cleaning and began prepping herself for the day. The mark on her cheek was still there, but fading slowly. It looked more like a paper cut than a pimple, so at least it was getting better. She put on a normal layering of makeup with extra care. She wanted to feel invincible today. Both she and Itsuki finished, Nino grabbed hers and Futaro's lunch boxes and they left together.

"You feeling nervous?" Itsuki asked on the way.

Nino said, "Aren't you?"

"Kinda. I know it's gonna be eating me until we open the test books."

"Yeah, it'll die once the questions are in front of us. Then we just gotta wait until the results come out. When is that again?"

"A few weeks later."

"Weeks!? How are we supposed to wait weeks!?"

Itsuki shrugged, "What else can we do?"

Nino sighed, "I just want this to be over with! Today is supposed to be the day!"

"I mean it's a national exam, we're talking tens of thousands of tests."

"And they never heard of a scantron? It's the digital age, this country needs to get with the times."

"Raiha!"

Nino blinked and looked to Itsuki, "What about her?"

Itsuki pointed towards the school gate. Amid the throngs of parents hugging and cheering their children on before a mock exam, of all things, making Nino wonder how they'd behave during the actual exams, she saw a girl perched on wide shoulders rising like a submarine periscope. Her arms flailed wildly, her tiny hands gripping two silver bundles.

Itsuki ran through the crowd, saying, "Mister Uesugi! Raiha! What're you doing here?"

He flashed an infectious grin that Futaro definitely inherited, "Today's a big day, and we're here to make sure you start it right!"

Raiha handed the silver presents to them as Nino approached cautiously, "Here, energy for the exams! I made them myself!"

Nino took it and peeled it open, revealing part of a tortilla, "What is it?"

"Curry-rittos! We made one for Yotsuba too, she got here super early though, so she had to come out and get it. Here, I made yours special, Nino!"

Nino suspected that 'special' was code for extra habaneros.

Itsuki took hers happily, "Thank you Raiha, you're so thoughtful!"

"Anything for you, Itsuki!"

Mister Uesugi put Raiha down and waved Nino over as she chatted with Itsuki, "Nino, got a sec?" Nino stepped closer and he leaned in, covering his mouth, "You doing alright, Nino?"

Nino asked, "With the exams?"

"No."

She sighed, "About yesterday? Did Futaro tell you?"

"I hope that's alright."

Nino didn't want it to be, she didn't want this spreading any further than it already had. Mister Uesugi read her like a newspaper and said, "For whatever it's worth, we're on your side. If there's anything we can do, you can count on us."

She nodded, feeling awkward, "Thanks."

"You know, in our family we've got a thing about no secrets."

"I noticed."

"And I think we can bring you into that. You might like to know that Futaro left early. Very early."

"I know."

"Yeah, but you don't know why. He told me he was gonna sweep the school top to bottom to make sure no one planted anything else overnight."

When anyone asked why she loved Futaro, it wasn't always easy to put into words. But she would say that he was always there, her knight in shining armor, when she needed him. Just like now. Nino felt her cheeks warming, "I should've guessed he'd do something like that."

Mister Uesugi grinned, patting her shoulder, "So go give it your all, no need to worry about anything else. See you later, Nino. Itsuki."

They waved farewell and entered the school against Mister Uesugi's and Raiha's sonorous cheers. Itsuki held up her burrito, "Okay, fair warning, these're gonna be hot."

"Duh. I got a mouthful of proof last week. How did you survive crashing with them for so long?"

"Lots and lots of milk."

"Wanna swing by the vending machine and grab some?"

"Sure."

She should've just gone to class. She should've ignored the staring she knew she'd find. She should have. But she had to get that drink.

She expected the mocking, it was bound to be more blatant than before. But they were so open with their leers it disturbed her. Itsuki held onto her arm like an anchor keeping her feet on the floor.

Then she saw a group of girls staring at an announcement board. One of them pointed to her, whispered something to the others, pointed to a notice pinned on the cork, and they left. Nino couldn't resist peeking at what she'd pointed at.

She saw a picture of a little girl caught unaware. Her mouth was open in surprise, showing braces bound with purple bands, hooks on an ugly retainer connecting to bands gripping her headgear to her face. There was a caption underneath, 'the makings of a slut'. It was the final piece to a puzzle Nino never wanted to solve.

Itsuki squealed and bolted forward, ripping it down with enough force to rattle the entire board. She looked back, but Nino was already storming away. "Nino, wait!"

Nino weaved through the halls like lightning through a starless sky, heading straight for the girl's changing room. She knew it'd be empty, no one was going to the gym today. She pushed through the door like a battering ram with Itsuki fast on her heel. Itsuki breathed, "Nino, stop."

"It was Ichika," Nino said steadily. It had to be, no one besides them knew about the picture, and Miku hadn't the heart, she was sure of that. But now everything was falling into place. She had the clout and the influence to spread whatever illusions she could craft through the entire school.

Itsuki breathed slowly, nodding, "I know."

Nino reached up to her left cheek. The wound didn't sting anymore, but she could still feel it immaterially, like a phantom limb. "All of this, it has to be her."

"I know."

Even as she said it, she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to accept that one of her own sisters could be so cruel to her, all over, what? A boy? That was it? That's what she was willing to destroy her own blood over? And if this were all she'd seen, she would have found another excuse. But Ichika had been proving to her for over a week how deep her vindictiveness ran like an endless vein of cursed gold. This wasn't Ichika, not as she knew her. She'd changed into someone she didn't know. But it was someone who hated her enough to spread whatever slander would destroy het.

Ichika had changed. She'd broken off too far to come back. Worse, she'd done it willingly. How dare she. How dare she take that precious gift they shared, the gift of their mother, and grind it under her heel? How dare she?

Itsuki suddenly grabbed her hand, which Nino had crushed into a fist. "Don't. Don't hurt yourself again."

Nino yanked her arm free, "I'm not stupid." But she might have, she just couldn't admit it. "I never knew she had it in her. She always had to have it her way, everything had to be okay with her before we could do anything. But I never thought she could do this."

Itsuki said softly, "None of us did. I had no idea."

"Futaro did," Nino said.

"You think so?"

"He told me this morning that something was bothering him. This must've been it. That's why he came so early, to make sure she didn't do anything else. But she did it anyways. You know why? Because she doesn't care who knows. She doesn't care that we'd find out she was behind it, hell, she wanted us to know! Even after Futaro and Yotsuba sweep the entire fucking school, she still managed to set this up! Because she really, really doesn't care about me anymore."

Itsuki held her hand, massaging the back of it, and asked, "So what now, Nino? What're you gonna do? I'm with you, no matter what happens."

Nino breathed sharply. She wasn't crying. She was long past that. "What am I gonna do?" She mused to the empty air. "I'm gonna beat her."

"Nino-"

"I'm not gonna be like her, though. I'm gonna be better. I'm gonna head into that classroom and not give a single, lonely fuck about her. And I'm gonna blow these exams outta the park, I'm gonna crush her score and beat her where it really matters! And then I'm gonna move on, because if she's stopped loving me, then I'm gonna do the same to her! I'm gonna live a better life than her, have better friends than her, and I'm gonna build a better family than her! I'm gonna win by living better than she ever could, and not caring what she thinks of me." Nino shook her head, her voice losing life, "I'm done, Itsuki. I'm just done."

Itsuki held her hand, and Nino felt her own sadness watching her family tear itself apart. Nino wished she could comfort her, she wished she had the strength to say it was going to be okay, that she and Ichika would be able to forgive each other for this. But she couldn't. She finally felt the greatness of their divide, and it was too far to cross again. Some wounds were too deep, even for her to forget.

"So let's do it then," Itsuki smiled sadly. What else could she say?

Nino nodded, "Let's go."

They left the locker room and went straight to class. Nino didn't look for the pictures she knew would be there, she left them behind with the rest of her rage. She narrowed her focus on the only thing that mattered: beating Ichika in the exams and everything after.

She burst into class like a prima donna stealing the stage so that everyone knew she was not abashed. Yotsuba sprang over to them, "About time you two got here! Class is about to start! Where were you?"

"I think you know," Nino said lowly.

"I really don't. Oh! Did you see Uesugi's family outside? They're so thoughtful!"

Itsuki blinked, "Didn't you see the pictures?"

"What pictures?"

Well that answers that, Nino thought. "Where's Futaro?"

"I was hoping he'd be with you. He left ten minutes ago."

Itsuki asked, "And what about Ichika? Or Miku?"

"I haven't seen them yet."

Nino felt her chest shrink as more unwanted pieces formed another unpleasant picture. "Oh no."

_**~Futaro~**_

"Come on, it's not that bad." Futaro chided.

Yotsuba was breathing rapidly like a puppy trapped in a baking car. "It burns! It burns so badly!"

Futaro rolled his eyes and took another bite, "You quintuplets just have sensitive taste buds. You're used to wagyu and lobster puffs."

"That's not true! I love Indian food, just not the ones that are on fire!"

"Want me to finish it?" He offered his hand.

But Yotsuba shielded it with her body, "Nuh-uh, this was made special by Raiha just for me."

"Good. So eat it."

"Aww," Yotsuba wined, stuck in a Catch-22 with no emergency exit. She took another bite and chewed against the embers igniting on her taste buds. Futaro grinned and offered her water. He told her it wouldn't help, but it wouldn't kill her placebo effect. Yotsuba drank greedily and cheered, "Ah, much better!"

Futaro leaned back in his chair and said, "So, we're all good. Nothing anywhere in the entire school."

"Mission accomplished, partner!" Yotsuba reached for a high five. Yotsuba laughed when Futaro nearly lost his balance meeting her.

"Anyways," Futaro said as he recovered, "We've got some time to kill, wanna-"

"Talk about the class trip? Hooray!"

"I meant study."

Yotsuba winced, "I know, I just really, really don't wanna."

"We have a whole ten minutes left."

"Futaro, we're about to spend the next eight hours staring at test after test after test! Can we just agree that if I don't know it by now, I don't know it?"

"Alright, fine. But why'd you wanna talk about the class trip anyways?"

"Because it's like right after this and we've never discussed it. We're class reps, we should have a handle on it by now."

"Like all those meetings I never attended?"

"Exactly! We gotta stop slacking!"

"With the exams? Don't make me laugh, nothing's gonna get done until they're off the docket. What's the point, anyways? The teachers are doing all the planning, all we gotta do is work out the groups."

"Exactly! We're supposed to be canvassing everyone and making sure everyone's in a group, but we haven't done it!"

"So you wanna do that now? Right before the mocks?"

"Why not?"

"But you don't wanna study."

"Not at all!"

He rolled his eyes, "Alright then. Let's start with us. That's you, me, Nino and Itsuki. Boom, that's ten percent of the class done in ten seconds. We're on a roll."

Yotsuba blinked, "You don't wanna go alone with Nino? We can go in groups of two, you know."

"Yeah, but it'd be less fun if we split up. Don't you wanna join us? It'd be better if we stuck together."

"You want us there?"

"I mean it'd be great with just the two of us, but I know there'll be some girly thing Nino wants to fawn over with Itsuki, so it works out for everyone. And I kinda wanted to go exploring with you too."

Yotsuba sucked on her lower lip and thought it over, the she grinned like a character on a child's favorite after school show. She threw her arm in the sky and said, "Alright, four down, plenty to go!"

Futaro smiled and checked his phone, "Hey, they texted you yet?"

"No, you got anything?"

"No. It's ten minutes to the bell. I'm gonna go look for them, I won't be long. Text me if they show up, okay?"

"You got it!"

Futaro waved as he left the classroom. He made a short list of likely places he'd find the pair. They'd better be somewhere in the schoolhouse by now. He wondered if Nino was purposefully avoiding the classroom until the last moment, but that didn't sound like jer. She'd make a show of how some petty rumors wouldn't influence her and that she was above even their grimiest gossip. He decided to check the vending machines first, maybe they went for something to fight Raiha's curry-ritto like Yotsuba. Their tastes were too sophisticated to handle a little homecooked spice.

Things had changed for Nino, he was sure. But he was surprised when they'd changed for him as well. Suddenly he wasn't just the top of the scoreboard, he was the guy supposedly banging the slut. But they didn't glare or point like they did with Nino. It was as if the hypothetical discarding of his virginity had made him visible like a known face in the crowds. Worse, he'd seen some guys actually greet him, like he was part of some private club. He hated the implication that he may be learning about his schoolmates' sex lives. And worse still, he knew it took two to tango. If these guys were getting lucky, they needed a partner, unless the gay population was more widespread than studies predicted. But none of those girls were being shamed like Nino was. This was about more than Nino's supposed sex life, it was malicious. Ichika had set this up to hurt her. The reminder darkened his mood like a thunder warning on a cloudy night.

And then he saw her picture.

It was hard to miss. Whoever printed the thing blew it up to take up as much page as the printer could reach. He recognized her before he read the caption. Here was the picture she'd described for him on that late night stroll after the concert. The one she never wanted anyone to see.

The fight-or-flight response is truly remarkable. At all times that tiny figment of the brain called the pituitary gland is holding a surplus of cortisol and adrenaline to unleash like a flash flood, igniting a cascade in milliseconds that elevates the body into hyper-alertness to either fight, or fly. It is ubiquitous with all animals blessed with an autonomic nervous system. It heightens hearing, sight, reaction times, everything you need. It's basically the best kind of drug high for not dying.

And while the process itself is incredibly complex, the outcome is rather simple: you fight, or you fly. There's no third option. This is all the body is trained to do. And despite the brain having evolved several more respectable systems in the past few millions of years, the fight-or-flight response remains largely unchanged. In fact, it supercedes all higher brain functions like a boss issuing an edict from on high. And even though Futaro thought he could master his mind like a city planner controlling urban chaos, he was still bound by the rules of his anatomy as much as he was to the laws of gravity. Once that chemical cascade began, there was no reasoning. There was no second guessing.

He saw the picture that Nino longed to hide. He then understood why she was late. His mind played a million possibilities of what happened once she saw this picture. They ranged from an impossible shrug of the shoulders to a morbidly less impossible scenario of rooftop swan diving. And his heart screamed that he wasn't with her when it happened this time. And he realized who was responsible. He remembered his ultimatum the night before, and realized he had failed. Then he realized Ichika had put this up as a blatant 'fuck you' to both him and his love. The chemical cascade roared like the Niagara. His fight-or-flight response took control.

"Okay," he said calmly as he ripped down the picture and left for blood.

_**~Ichika~**_

She never meant to ruin Nino's life. She only wanted to teach her a lesson. It was one Ichika felt Nino was long overdue for. She always ended up getting her way. If someone denied her, she was pushy enough to snatch whatever she wanted into her little claws. It didn't matter what damage was done on the way, all that mattered was that she nabbed her prize. But the world doesn't work that way, no one got to get the apple of their eye every time they tried to change how the world turned.

Ichika had thought that Futaro would be the smack in the face she'd needed. Of course he would reject her, after everything she'd done to him, how could he not? He would reject Aphrodite herself if she'd tormented him as Nino had done over and over like a siren singing her song of dejection. And then Nino would finally understand, actions had consequences, and she was no more special than anyone else. And then, just maybe, her little sister would finally grow up.

And then he fell in love with her. It was like watching a fly dance into the spider's web.

So she decided if Futaro wouldn't teach her, the burden would be hers. Her little rumors were nothing more than nuggets of truth. Nino always wore her heart on her sleeve, she shouldn't have a problem with a few tidbits about her romantic history, or whatever you'd call her blatant assaults, making a few rounds in the schoolhouse. And if her classmates took it a bit further, who was she to stop them? And if Nino felt ashamed of what she'd done, well then, maybe it was time for some reflection. And if she hated Ichika spreading pieces of her life after acting the blowhard that she was, well then maybe it was time for her to face her own hypocrisy.

And Futaro? She didn't love him anymore. She was pressed to remember why she'd loved him in the first place. She assumed it was proximity. Wasn't he the only boy her age she worked closely with on a regular basis that didn't have stars in their eyes? And her impressionable mind erased his negatives like stretch marks in photoshop. But he was just another boy after the first pretty girl to bat her eyelashes his way. He may be book smart, but he was as dumb and horny as the rest of these children. He was no one now, just Uesugi, the boy sitting four seats to her right.

"Ichika!"

She had to rise to her tip-toes to see over Mori's massive shoulders, the boy was built like an industrial smelter. She saw Uesugi marching her way like a canoe riding the rapids.

One of the girls at her side leaned over to look, "What's Uesugi want with you?"

She knew. It was obvious he'd find out. She didn't care. He didn't get to intimidate her into silence. She meant to show him how little she cared about both of them. Of course there'd be blowback, but what could he do? He was a scrawny twig careful that even a summer breeze would blow him over. She'd never let him anywhere near her alone again. What could he do?

But when she saw him, she knew that none of that mattered to him. This was the stranger from the night before, but darker, like the shadows swallowed him and painted them in their color. The boy who lorded over her like a titan had structure. Every movement was carefully coordinated and planned. It was Uesugi, in the end. This was different. He was like a dam that broke in an instant and flooded the innocent valley below. Uesugi's ever-present control was shattered, and Ichika knew he was coming for her.

One of the boys saw her face, and she must not have hidden her fear, because he looked to Uesugi and stepped in front of them. When he got too close he blocked Uesugi, pressing his hand into his chest, "Hey man, better just head back-"

Uesugi gripped his wrist, twisted, and threw him aside. He fell with a groan, too stunned to get right back up.

Uesugi stepped closer, he roared like a wild wild breaking through the valley, "Ichika, come here. Now."

Ichika stepped away as her fear gripped her neck. She bumped into someone behind her as he reached out his hand.

Mori the giant wound his fist and hurled it into Uesugi's belly, nearly lifting him off his feet. Uesugi's eyes bulged, he coughed and fell to his knees, cradling his gut with both arms. He wheezed to regain his breath.

Mori looked from Uesugi to her. His eyes were frightened and his breathing wild, like he'd just sprinted from on end of the city to the other. He cursed to himself, then he took her wrist and said, "Nakano, we should leave."

Ichika gasped for breath she didn't know she needed. Mori took her away like a child pulling a wagon. She stepped wide of Uesugi who was still on the floor, moaning and clenching his stomach.

"Ichika," he sneered, looking over his shoulder as she was dragged away. "I will get you for this. I will. I swear." He clenched his eyes in pain and bowed forward like a monk in prayer.

Ichika held her own stomach and felt something gripping inside, as if his hand had reached her and wouldn't let go.

_**~Miku~**_

There's something to be said about being a wallflower. You can walk anywhere like shadows on footsteps and no one bothers to notice. Of course, she made every effort to remain unaware of the world around her in return. Her headphones looped through her infinite playlist and she wandered the halls drinking her tea, delaying the beginning of the exams. She didn't care how well she might do, she'd studied as she was supposed to and was ready for whatever might happen to finally happen.

She wasn't ready to round the corner and watch a tower of a man hit Futaro in the stomach. Nor for when the crowd, including Ichika being pulled like an unwilling farm animal, left him curled on the ground.

Miku hid behind the corner, peeking out as far as she dared to not get caught. She watched him steady his breathing and massage his stomach like he was a double agent checking for his wire.

She could have run to help him. A part of her even wanted to. But she was seized by the same indecisiveness that stopped her the day before. She wasn't the one he wanted. She would only get in the way. She wanted to walk away and take the long route to class. He didn't need her there.

Futaro let out a harsh breath and tried to stand. He got to one leg, then groaned as he tumbled over, falling on his side. He cried as he hit the floor. His cry was like a summoning spell that woke something inside her she didn't know was there. Her legs started moving on their own, and before she knew what she was doing, she was kneeling next to Futaro.

"Hey, Futaro? Futaro, can you look at me?" she asked quietly.

Futaro opened one eye, "Miku."

"Yeah, it's me."

"Help me up. Please."

Miku took his arm and helped him sit up, setting his back against the wall. She asked, "What's wrong?"

"I dunno."

"I saw him hit you, is that it? Did he break something?"

"I don't think so. It's something else. It's been bothering me all week, I think that made it worse." She watched him gripping his stomach like he was holding pressure on an open wound.

Miku pulled out her phone, "I'll call an ambulance, hold-"

He covered her phone with his hand, "Don't."

"Futaro, you need help."

"Not that."

Miku put her hand on his over her phone. She tried peeling it away. "Futaro, you're hurt. You need to see a doctor."

"I can't do that, Miku."

"Why not?"

Futaro leaned his head against the wall, thinking through his answer. His voice went quiet, ragged with distance, "Please don't do it. If I go," he paused, "it'll just be another burden on my dad."

Miku gripped his hand, "So what do you want me to do?"

"Get me to the nurse. I'll call my dad, he'll come get me."

Miku wanted to insist. She almost stepped back and called the emergency number against his wishes, but he held her hand and said, "Please, Miku." And she couldn't deny him.

But how could she get him up? He might be lighter than most boys, but he was still much too heavy for her to lift alone, she thought. But the sight of him holding his stomach, knowing something was wrong, she had to try.

She grasped him around his chest and said, "Let's get you up. Ready?"

"Ready."

She squatted and pushed up with her knees, groaning as they slowly began to rise. He did what he could to help, but she could see every muscle he used was another blow to his gut. She had to do this on her own. And just when her muscles felt they were going to fail, she saw a tear trickling from his eye and knew the pain was severe. She wanted to help him. She still loved him. She wasn't going to leave him here. So she lifted through her own pain and got him to his feet. She wrapped his arm over her shoulder and held him up, she could hardly believe she did it. Here she was carrying his weight and hers, and somehow she stood tall.

She said, "Come on, let's go. I got you." Futaro grunted and leaned on her as they slowly moved down the hall.

**A/N**

One of you caught the reference to the picture. That really made my day to see that commented on. I've been trickling little pieces of foreshadowing here and there in places I didn't think would be obvious, and I'm glad that someone picked up on that. I referenced Futaro's pain for the last few chapters as well in a more obvious way, and there's more that I've sprinkled here and there that will come up again. I prefer writing with most of the structure already in place, only changing things as they come. This style of writing helps me keep the flow over a long, long story.

Most comments have been dedicated to Ichika and her behavior, and I've enjoyed reading all the responses her actions are garnering. So many people are viewing her behavior through different lenses and sometimes those contrasts are striking. But many of you believe that her actions are irredeemable. It'll be interesting to see how you think of her character later on once her arc reaches its conclusion. Remember how Nino started out as a vindictive obstacle, and often a villain to Futaro. If you're enjoying this story, I imagine you came around to her. Give Ichika time and you'll see where her journey goes.

I have the next chapter already in the works, I'm trying to write ahead if I can to give myself more time in the editing stages. A chapter I draft looks a lot different after I've gone through it two or three times with a red pen, and more time to let it bake will let me shape them even better.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, it is always a pleasure to receive your feedback and your thoughts. I hope you will please continue to review, and I'll be back in two weeks for the next chapter.

Chapter published: July 30th, 2020.


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